Object creation with physical manipulation

ABSTRACT

Described are improved systems and methods for navigation and manipulation of interactable objects in a 3D mixed reality environment. Improved systems and methods are provided to implement physical manipulation for creation and placement of interactable objects, such as browser windows and wall hangings. A method includes receiving data indicating a selection of an interactable object contained within a first prism at the start of a user interaction. The method also includes receiving data indicating an end of the user interaction with the interactable object. The method further includes receiving data indicating a physical movement of the user corresponding to removing the interactable object from the first prism between the start and the end of the user interaction. Moreover, the method includes creating a second prism to contain the data associated with the interactable object at the end of the user interaction with the interactable object.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/971,603, filed on Aug. 20, 2020, entitled “OBJECT CREATION WITHPHYSICAL MANIPULATION” which claims priority to PCT Application No.PCT/US2019/018920, filed Feb. 21, 2019 which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/634,007, filed on Feb. 22, 2018, entitled“Window Creation With Physical Manipulation”; and 62/665,251, filed onMay 1, 2018, entitled “Object Creation With Physical Manipulation.” Thepresent disclosure is related to U.S. Provisional Application No.62/492,292, filed on May 1, 2017, entitled ““Spatially DeconstructedBrowser.” The contents of the aforementioned patent applications arehereby expressly and fully incorporated by reference in their entirety,as though set forth in full.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The disclosure relates to systems and methods for implementing browsingtechnology in a spatial 3D environment.

BACKGROUND

A typical way to view a web page is to open the web page on a monitor ofa computer, smartphone, tablet, etc. A user would scroll through the webpage to view the different content displayed on the web page. Normally,whether the user is looking at the computer monitor, smartphone ortablet, there is a fixed format as to how the content is displayed onthe monitor.

With virtual reality, augmented reality, and/or mixed reality systems(hereinafter collectively referred to as “mixed reality” systems), athree dimensional environment is provided for the display of content toa user. The problem is that conventional approaches to display andmanipulate 2D content within browsers do not work very well when used ina 3D environment.

For example, consider the process to create a new window in a computingenvironment. Typically, a mouse or a similar device is used tomanipulate a menu structure to create a window, where the mouse is thenused to drag that new window to a desired location. However, withconventional 2D web browsers, since the display area of the displaydevice is limited to the screen area of a monitor that is displaying thecontent, this means conventional browsers are configured to only knowhow to create and place within that monitor display area. Theconventional window creation approaches are therefore quite limitingwhen creating new windows in non-2D environments (such as mixed realitysystems), since 3D environments are not limited to the strict confinesof the monitor display area. As such, conventional 2D browsers performsub-optimally when used in a 3D environment since conventional browsingtechnologies just do not have the functionality or capability to takeadvantage of the 3D environment for creating and displaying content.

This problem also exists for other types of objects in a computingenvironment, where conventional approaches to interact with computingenvironments do not contemplate efficient approaches for manipulation ofobjects in the 3D environment. For example, conventional computingsystems just do not provide effective mechanisms to implement placementof newly created objects (such as hanging a digital picture on a wall).

Therefore, there is a need for an improved approach to implementcreation and manipulation of objects in a 3D environment.

SUMMARY

Improved systems and methods are provided to implement physicalmanipulation for creation and placement of interactable objects. In someembodiments, a user of a mixed reality system is provided the ability toplace newly created virtual objects (i.e. data associated withinteractable object) to any eligible location in the user's environment,where placement of that interactable object is achieved by physicalmanipulation activities of the user.

Improved systems and methods are provided to implement physicalmanipulation for creation and placement of browser windows. In someembodiments, a user of a mixed reality system is provided the ability toplace the browser window to any eligible location in the user'senvironment, where placement of that window is achieved by physicalmanipulation activities of the user. The improved systems and methodsfor navigation and manipulation of browser windows may be applied in thecontext of 2D content that is deconstructed and displayed in a spatiallyorganized 3D environment. This may include identifying 2D content,identifying elements in the 2D content, identifying surroundingsurfaces, mapping the identified elements to the identified surroundingsurfaces, and displaying the elements as virtual content onto thesurrounding surfaces.

Some embodiments pertain to improved systems and methods to implementphysical manipulation for creation and placement of wall hangings in asingle user interaction. In some embodiments, a user of a mixed realitysystem is provided the ability to place the wall hanging to any eligiblelocation in the user's environment, where placement of that wall hangingis achieved by physical manipulation activities of the user.

Further details of aspects, objects, and advantages of the invention aredescribed below in the detailed description, drawings, and claims. Boththe foregoing general description and the following detailed descriptionare exemplary and explanatory, and are not intended to be limiting as tothe scope of the invention.

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving data indicating aselection of an interactable object contained within a first prism atthe start of a user interaction. The method also includes receiving dataindicating an end of the user interaction with the interactable object.The method further includes receiving data indicating a physicalmovement of the user corresponding to removing the interactable objectfrom the first prism between the start and the end of the userinteraction. Moreover, the method includes creating a second prism tocontain the data associated with the interactable object at the end ofthe user interaction with the interactable object.

In one or more embodiments, the method also includes displaying a visualpreview of the data associated with the interactable object at alocation of the interactable object between the start and the end of theuser interaction when the interactable object is located outside thebounds of the first prism. The method may also include a user inputdevice providing the data indicating the selection of the interactableobject and the data indicating the end of the user interaction with theinteractable object. The user input device may be a haptics controller.The haptics controller may correspond to a totem device having at leastsix degrees of freedom. A physical movement of the user may betranslated into event objects at a processing system associated with thehaptics controller, where the event objects correlate to data formovement or positioning of the haptics controller. A location of theinteractable object at the end of the user interaction may be determinedby identifying a location at which a trigger is released for the hapticscontroller after the selection of the interactable object. The userinput device may be a camera to detect a user gesture. The dataindicating the selection of the interactable object may correspond to aselection gesture. The data indicating the end of the user interactionwith the interactable object may correspond to a release gesture.

In one or more embodiments, the data indicating the selection of theinteractable object corresponds to at least a portion of the user's bodyinteracting with a link. A preview may be generated of the link byaccessing content for a URL associated with the link. The method mayalso include receiving data indicating a physical movement of the user,physical movement of the user corresponds to a physical movement of thepreview. The interactable object may be both opened and placed with theuser interaction. An orientation for the interactable object may bedetermined by determining a surface normal of the location of theinteractable object at the end of the user interaction, determining theorientation of the data associated with the interactable object, andaligning the surface normal of the coordinate location with theorientation of the data associated with the interactable object. Theinteractable object may include a wall hanging.

In another embodiment, a method includes identifying an interactableobject. The method also includes identifying a physical movement of auser corresponding to the interactable object. The method furtherincludes determining a coordinate location for a data associated withthe interactable object based upon the physical movement of the user.Moreover, the method includes placing the data associated with theinteractable object at the coordinate location corresponding to thephysical movement of the user.

In one or more embodiments, a user input device is employed to detectthe physical movement of the user. The user input device may be ahaptics controller. The haptics controller may correspond to a totemdevice having at least six degrees of freedom. The physical movement ofthe user may be translated into event objects at a processing systemassociated with the haptics controller, where the event objectscorrelate to data indicating movement or positioning of the hapticscontroller. The coordinate location for the interactable object may bedetermined by identifying a location at which a trigger is released forthe haptics controller after the physical movement of the user.

In one or more embodiments, the user input device is a camera to detecta user gesture. The interactable object to open may be identified byidentifying a link that interacts with a portion of the user's body. Apreview may be generated of the link by accessing content for a URLassociated with the link. The physical movement of the user maycorrespond to a physical movement of the preview. The interactableobject may be both opened and placed with a single user interaction of acomputing device. An orientation for the interactable object may bedetermined by determining a surface normal of the coordinate location,determining the orientation of the data associated with the interactableobject, and aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location withthe orientation of the data associated with the interactable object. Theinteractable object may include a wall hanging.

In still another embodiment, a system includes a mixed reality displaydevice that is configured to display three dimensional content. Thesystem also includes a user input device configured to detect physicalmovement of a user. The system further includes a processor thatreceives and processes data from the user input device, a memory forholding programmable code executable by the processor. The programmablecode includes instructions for identifying an interactable object,identifying a physical movement of a user corresponding to theinteractable object, determining a coordinate location for a dataassociated with the interactable object based upon the physical movementof the user, and placing the data associated with the interactableobject at the coordinate location corresponding to the physical movementof the user.

In one or more embodiments, the user input device is a hapticscontroller. The haptics controller may correspond to a totem devicehaving at least six degrees of freedom. The physical movement of theuser may be translated into event objects at the processor, where theevent objects correlate to the data indicating movement or positioningof the haptics controller. The coordinate location for the interactableobject may be determined by identifying a location at which a trigger isreleased for the haptics controller after the physical movement of theuser.

In one or more embodiments, the user input device is a camera to detecta user gesture. The interactable object to open may be identified byidentifying a link that interacts with a portion of the user's body. Apreview may be generated of the link by accessing content for a URLassociated with the link. The physical movement of the user maycorrespond to a physical movement of the preview. The interactableobject may include a wall hanging. The programmable code may alsoinclude instructions for determining an orientation for the interactableobject by determining a surface normal of a coordinate location,determining the orientation of data associated with the interactableobject, and aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location withthe orientation of the data associated with the interactable object.

In yet another embodiment, a computer program product embodied on acomputer readable medium, the computer readable medium having storedthereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processorcauses the processor to execute a method including identifying aninteractable object. The method also includes identifying a physicalmovement of a user corresponding to the interactable object. The methodfurther includes determining a coordinate location for a data associatedwith the interactable object based upon the physical movement of theuser. Moreover, the method includes placing the data associated with theinteractable object at the coordinate location corresponding to thephysical movement of the user.

In one or more embodiments, a user input device is employed to detectthe physical movement of the user corresponding to the window. The userinput device may be a haptics controller. The haptics controller maycorrespond to a totem device having at least six degrees of freedom. Thephysical movement of the user may be translated into event objects at aprocessing system associated with the haptics controller, where theevent objects correlate to data indicating movement or positioning ofthe haptics controller. The coordinate location for the interactableobject may be determined by identifying a location at which a trigger isreleased for the haptics controller after the physical movement of theuser.

In one or more embodiments, the user input device is a camera to detecta user gesture. The window to open may be identified by identifying alink that interacts with a portion of the user's body. A preview may begenerated of the link by accessing content for a URL associated with thelink. The physical movement of the user may correspond to a physicalmovement of the preview. The interactable object may be both opened andplaced with a single user interaction of a computing device. The singleuser interaction may include a single push of a button on the computingdevice. The sequence of instructions further determines an orientationfor the interactable object by determining a surface normal of acoordinate location, determining the orientation of data associated withthe interactable object, and aligning the surface normal of thecoordinate location with the orientation of the data associated with theinteractable object.

In another embodiment, a method includes receiving data indicating aselection of an interactable object at the start of a user interaction.The method also includes receiving data indicating an end of the userinteraction with the interactable object. The method further includesdetermining a location of the interactable object at the end of the userinteraction. Moreover, the method includes placing data associated withthe interactable object at the location of the interactable object atthe end of the user interaction.

In one or more embodiments, the method also includes a user input deviceproviding the data indicating the selection of the interactable objectand the data indicating the end of the user interaction with theinteractable object. The user input device may be a haptics controller.The haptics controller may correspond to a totem device having at leastsix degrees of freedom. A physical movement of the user may betranslated into event objects at a processing system associated with thehaptics controller, where the event objects correlate to data formovement or positioning of the haptics controller. The location of theinteractable object at the end of the user interaction may be determinedby identifying a location at which a trigger is released for the hapticscontroller after the selection of the interactable object.

In one or more embodiments, the user input device is a camera to detecta user gesture. The data indicating the selection of the interactableobject may correspond to a selection gesture. The data indicating theend of the user interaction with the interactable object may correspondto a release gesture. The data indicating the selection of theinteractable object may correspond to at least a portion of the user'sbody interacting with a link. A preview may be generated of the link byaccessing content for a URL associated with the link. The method mayalso include receiving data indicating a physical movement of the user,where the physical movement of the user corresponds to a physicalmovement of the preview. The interactable object may be both opened andplaced with the user interaction. An orientation for the interactableobject may be determined by determining a surface normal of the locationof the interactable object at the end of the user interaction,determining the orientation of the data associated with the interactableobject, and aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location withthe orientation of the data associated with the interactable object. Theinteractable object may include a wall hanging.

In still another embodiment, a method includes receiving data indicatinga selection of an interactable object at the start of a userinteraction. The method also includes receiving data indicating an endof the user interaction with the interactable object. The method furtherincludes determining a location of the interactable object at the end ofthe user interaction. Moreover, the method includes creating a new prismfor the data associated with the interactable object at the end of theuser interaction when the location of the interactable object at the endof the user interaction is outside of an initial prism of theinteractable object.

In one or more embodiments, the method also includes displaying a visualpreview of the data associated with the interactable object at thelocation of the interactable object between the start and the end of theuser interaction when the interactable object is located outside thebounds of the initial prism. The method may also include a user inputdevice providing the data indicating the selection of the interactableobject and the data indicating the end of the user interaction with theinteractable object. The user input device is a haptics controller. Thehaptics controller may correspond to a totem device having at least sixdegrees of freedom. A physical movement of the user may be translatedinto event objects at a processing system associated with the hapticscontroller, where the event objects correlate to data for movement orpositioning of the haptics controller. The location of the interactableobject at the end of the user interaction may be determined byidentifying a location at which a trigger is released for the hapticscontroller after the selection of the interactable object.

In one or more embodiments, the user input device is a camera to detecta user gesture. The data indicating the selection of the interactableobject may correspond to a selection gesture. The data indicating theend of the user interaction with the interactable object may correspondto a release gesture. The data indicating the selection of theinteractable object may correspond to at least a portion of the user'sbody interacting with a link. A preview may be generated of the link byaccessing content for a URL associated with the link. The method mayalso include receiving data indicating a physical movement of the user,where the physical movement of the user corresponds to a physicalmovement of the preview. The interactable object may be both opened andplaced with the user interaction. An orientation for the interactableobject may be determined by determining a surface normal of the locationof the interactable object at the end of the user interaction,determining the orientation of the data associated with the interactableobject, and aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location withthe orientation of the data associated with the interactable object. Theinteractable object may include a wall hanging.

In yet another embodiment, a method includes receiving data indicatingthe selection of an interactable object contained within a first prismat the start of a user interaction. The method also includes creating asecond prism at a location of the interactable object at an end of theuser interaction to contain the data associated with the interactableobject when data representing a physical movement of the usercorresponding to the user interaction between the start and the end ofthe user interaction indicates the interactable object is outside of thefirst prism at the end of the user interaction.

In one or more embodiments, the method also includes a user input deviceproviding the data indicating the selection of the interactable objectand the data indicating representing a physical movement of the usercorresponding to the user interaction between the start and the end ofthe user. The user input device may be a haptics controller. The hapticscontroller may correspond to a totem device having at least six degreesof freedom. A physical movement of the user may be translated into eventobjects at a processing system associated with the haptics controller,where the event objects correlate to data for movement or positioning ofthe haptics controller. The location of the interactable object at theend of the user interaction may be determined by identifying a locationat which a trigger is released for the haptics controller after theselection of the interactable object.

In one or more embodiments, the user input device is a camera to detecta user gesture. The data indicating the selection of the interactableobject may correspond to a selection gesture. The data indicating theend of the user interaction with the interactable object may correspondto a release gesture. The data indicating the selection of theinteractable object may correspond to at least a portion of the user'sbody interacting with a link. A preview may be generated of the link byaccessing content for a URL associated with the link. The physicalmovement of the user may correspond to a physical movement of thepreview. The interactable object may be both opened and placed with theuser interaction. An orientation for the interactable object may bedetermined by determining a surface normal of the location of theinteractable object at the end of the user interaction, determining theorientation of the data associated with the interactable object, andaligning the surface normal of the coordinate location with theorientation of the data associated with the interactable object. Theinteractable object may include a wall hanging.

In another embodiment, a system includes a mixed reality display devicethat is configured to display three dimensional content. The system alsoincludes a user input device configured to detect physical movement of auser. The system further includes a processor that receives andprocesses data from the user input device. Moreover, the system includesa memory for holding programmable code executable by the processor,where the programmable code includes instructions for receiving dataindicating a selection of an interactable object contained within afirst prism at the start of a user interaction, receiving dataindicating an end of the user interaction with the interactable object,receiving data indicating a physical movement of the user correspondingto removing the interactable object from the first prism between thestart and the end of the user interaction, and creating a second prismto contain the data associated with the interactable object at the endof the user interaction with the interactable object.

In still another embodiment, a system includes a mixed reality displaydevice that is configured to display three dimensional content. Thesystem also includes a user input device configured to detect physicalmovement of a user. The system further includes a processor thatreceives and processes data from the user input device. Moreover, thesystem includes a memory for holding programmable code executable by theprocessor, where the programmable code includes instructions forreceiving data indicating a selection of an interactable object at thestart of a user interaction, receiving data indicating an end of theuser interaction with the interactable object, determining a location ofthe interactable object at the end of the user interaction, and creatinga new prism for the data associated with the interactable object at theend of the user interaction when the location of the interactable objectat the end of the user interaction is outside of an initial prism of theinteractable object

In yet another embodiment, a system includes a mixed reality displaydevice that is configured to display three dimensional content. Thesystem also includes a user input device configured to detect physicalmovement of a user. The system further includes a processor thatreceives and processes data from the user input device. Moreover, thesystem includes a memory for holding programmable code executable by theprocessor, where the programmable code includes instructions forreceiving data indicating the selection of an interactable objectcontained within a first prism at the start of a user interaction, andcreating a second prism at a location of the interactable object at anend of the user interaction to contain the data associated with theinteractable object when data representing a physical movement of theuser corresponding to the user interaction between the start and the endof the user interaction indicates the interactable object is outside ofthe first prism at the end of the user interaction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings illustrate the design and utility of various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. It should be noted that the figures are notdrawn to scale and that elements of similar structures or functions arerepresented by like reference numerals throughout the figures. In orderto better appreciate how to obtain the above-recited and otheradvantages and objects of various embodiments of the disclosure, a moredetailed description of the present disclosure briefly described abovewill be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which areillustrated in the accompanying drawings. Understanding that thesedrawings depict only typical embodiments of the disclosure and are nottherefore to be considered limiting of its scope, the disclosure will bedescribed and explained with additional specificity and detail throughthe use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an augmented reality environment for deconstructing2D content to be displayed in a user's 3D environment, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example mapping of elements of a 2D content to auser's 3D environment, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for deconstructing 2Dcontent to be displayed in a 3D environment, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for identifying elementsin a 2D content, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a table to store elements deconstructed froma 2D content, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for identifying surfacesfrom a user's local environment, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a table to store an inventory of surfacesidentified from a user's local environment, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for mapping elements froma 2D content to available surfaces, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a table to store the mapping of elements froma 2D content to surfaces from a user's local environment, according tosome embodiments.

FIG. 10A shows a flowchart of an approach to implement physicalplacement and manipulation of data associated with interactable objects.

FIG. 10B shows a flowchart of an approach to implement physicalplacement and manipulation of browser windows.

FIG. 10C shows a flowchart of an approach to implement physicalplacement and manipulation of wall hangings.

FIGS. 11A-F provide an illustrated example of an approach to physicallyplace windows in a mixed realty environment.

FIGS. 12A-F provide an illustrated example of an approach to physicallyplace data associated with interactable objects in a mixed realtyenvironment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an illustrative computing system suitablefor implementing an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments will now be described in detail with reference tothe drawings, which are provided as illustrative examples of thedisclosure so as to enable those skilled in the art to practice thedisclosure. Notably, the figures and the examples below are not meant tolimit the scope of the present disclosure. Where certain elements of thepresent disclosure may be partially or fully implemented using knowncomponents (or methods or processes), only those portions of such knowncomponents (or methods or processes) that are necessary for anunderstanding of the present disclosure will be described, and thedetailed descriptions of other portions of such known components (ormethods or processes) will be omitted so as not to obscure thedisclosure. Further, various embodiments encompass present and futureknown equivalents to the components referred to herein by way ofillustration.

Web Page Deconstruction

Embodiments of the disclosure will deconstruct a 2D web page to bedisplayed in a spatially organized 3D environment. The 2D web page mayoriginate on a web browser of a head-mounted system, a mobile device(e.g., cell phone), a tablet, a television, an application, and thelike. In some embodiments, the 2D web page may be received from anotherapplication or device such as a laptop computer, a desktop computer, anemail application with a link to the 2D web page, an electronic messagereferencing or including a link to the 2D web page and the like.

Referring to Figure (FIG. 1 , environment 100 is representative of aphysical environment and systems for implementing processes describedbelow (e.g., deconstructing 2D content from a web page to be displayedon 3D surfaces in a user's physical environment 105). The representativephysical environment and system of the environment 100 includes a user'sphysical environment 105 as viewed by a user 108 through a head-mountedsystem 160. The representative system of the environment 100 furtherincludes accessing a 2D content (e.g., a web page) via a web browser 110operably coupled to a network 120. The network 120 may be the Internet,an internal network, a private cloud network, a public cloud network,etc. The web browser 110 is also operably coupled to a processor 170 viathe network 120. Although the processor 170 is shown as an isolatedcomponent separate from the head-mounted system 160, in an alternateembodiment, the processor 170 may be integrated with one or morecomponents of the head-mounted system 160, and/or may be integrated intoother system components within the environment 100 such as, for example,the network 120 to access a computing network 125 and storage devices130. The processor 170 may be configured with software 150 for receivingand processing information such as video, audio and content receivedfrom the head-mounted system 160, a local storage device 140, the webbrowser 110, the computing network 125, and the storage devices 130. Thesoftware 150 may communicate with the computing network 125 and thestorage devices 130 via the network 120. The software 150 may beinstalled on the processor 170 or, in another embodiment; the featuresand functionalities of software may be integrated into the processor170. The processor 170 may also be configured with the local storagedevice 140 for storing information used by the processor 170 for quickaccess without relying on information stored remotely on an externalstorage device from a vicinity of the user 108. In other embodiments,the processor 170 may be integrated within the head-mounted system 160.

The user's physical environment 105 is the physical surroundings of theuser 108 as the user moves about and views the user's physicalenvironment 105 through the head-mounted system 160. For example,referring to FIG. 1 , the user's physical environment 105 shows a roomwith two walls (e.g., main wall 180 and side wall 184, the main wall andside wall being relative to the user's view) and a table 188. On themain wall 180, there is a rectangular surface 182 depicted by a solidblack line to show a physical surface with a physical border (e.g., apainting hanging or attached to a wall, or a window, etc.) that may be acandidate surface to project certain 2D content onto. On the side wall184, there is a second rectangular surface 186 depicted by a solid blackline to show a physical surface with a physical border (e.g., a paintinghanging or attached to a wall or a window, etc). On the table 188, theremay be different objects. 1) A virtual Rolodex 190 where certain 2Dcontent may be stored and displayed; 2) a horizontal surface 192depicted by a solid black line to represent a physical surface with aphysical border to project certain 2D content onto; and 3) multiplestacks of virtual square surfaces 194 depicted by a dotted black line torepresent, for example, stacked virtual newspaper where certain 2Dcontent may be stored and displayed.

The web browser 110 may also display a blog page from the internet orwithin an intranet/private network. Additionally, the web browser 110may also be any technology that displays digital 2D content. 2D contentmay include, for example, web pages, blogs, digital pictures, videos,news articles, newsletters, or music. The 2D content may be stored inthe storage devices 130 that are accessible by the user 108 via thenetwork 120. In some embodiments, 2D content may also be streamingcontent, for example, live video feeds or live audio feeds. The storagedevices 130 may include, for example, a database, a file system, apersistent memory device, a flash drive, a cache, etc. In someembodiments, the web browser 110 containing 2D content (e.g., web page)is displayed via computing network 125.

The computing network 125 accesses the storage devices 130 to retrieveand store 2D content for displaying in a web page on the web browser110. In some embodiments, the local storage device 140 may provide 2Dcontent of interest to the user 108. The local storage device 140 mayinclude, for example, a flash drive, a cache, a hard drive, a database,a file system, etc. Information stored in the local storage device 140may include recently accessed 2D content or recently displayed contentin a 3D space. The local storage device 140 allows improvements inperformance to the systems of the environment 100 by providing certaincontent locally to the software 150 for helping to deconstruct 2Dcontent to display the 2D content on the 3D space environment (e.g., 3Dsurfaces in the user's physical environment 105).

The software 150 includes software programs stored within anon-transitory computer readable medium to perform the functions ofdeconstructing 2D content to be displayed within the user's physicalenvironment 105. The software 150 may run on the processor 170 whereinthe processor 170 may be locally attached to the user 108, or in someother embodiments, the software 150 and the processor 170 may beincluded within the head-mounted system 160. In some embodiments,portions of the features and functions of the software 150 may be storedand executed on the computing network 125 remote from the user 108. Forexample, in some embodiments, deconstructing 2D content may take placeon the computing network 125 and the results of the deconstructions maybe stored within the storage devices 130, wherein the inventorying of auser's local environment's surfaces for presenting the deconstructed 2Dcontent on may take place within the processor 170 wherein the inventoryof surfaces and mappings are stored within the local storage device 140.In one embodiment, the processes of deconstructing 2D content,inventorying local surfaces, mapping the elements of the 2D content tolocal surfaces and displaying the elements of the 2D content may alltake place locally within the processor 170 and the software 150.

The head-mounted system 160 may be a virtual reality (VR) or augmentedreality (AR) head-mounted system that includes a user interface, auser-sensing system, an environment sensing system, and a processor (allnot shown). The head-mounted system 160 presents to the user 108 aninterface for interacting with and experiencing a digital world. Suchinteraction may involve the user and the digital world, one or moreother users interfacing the environment 100, and objects within thedigital and physical world.

The user interface may include receiving 2D content and selectingelements within the 2D content by user input through the user interface.The user interface may be at least one or a combination of a hapticsinterface devices, a keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, a motion capturecontroller, an optical tracking device and an audio input device. Ahaptics interface device is a device that allows a human to interactwith a computer through bodily sensations and movements. Haptics refersto a type of human-computer interaction technology that encompassestactile feedback or other bodily sensations to perform actions orprocesses on a computing device.

The user-sensing system may include one or more sensors 162 operable todetect certain features, characteristics, or information related to theuser 108 wearing the head-mounted system 160. For example, in someembodiments, the sensors 162 may include a camera or opticaldetection/scanning circuitry capable of detecting real-time opticalcharacteristics/measurements of the user 108 such as, for example, oneor more of the following: pupil constriction/dilation, angularmeasurement/positioning of each pupil, spherocity, eye shape (as eyeshape changes over time) and other anatomic data. This data may provide,or be used to calculate information (e.g., the user's visual focalpoint) that may be used by the head-mounted system 160 to enhance theuser's viewing experience.

The environment-sensing system may include one or more sensors 164 forobtaining data from the user's physical environment 105. Objects orinformation detected by the sensors 164 may be provided as input to thehead-mounted system 160. In some embodiments, this input may representuser interaction with the virtual world. For example, a user (e.g., theuser 108) viewing a virtual keyboard on a desk (e.g., the table 188) maygesture with their fingers as if the user was typing on the virtualkeyboard. The motion of the fingers moving may be captured by thesensors 164 and provided to the head-mounted system 160 as input,wherein the input may be used to change the virtual world or create newvirtual objects.

The sensors 164 may include, for example, a generally outward-facingcamera or a scanner for interpreting scene information, for example,through continuously and/or intermittently projected infrared structuredlight. The environment-sensing system may be used for mapping one ormore elements of the user's physical environment 105 around the user 108by detecting and registering the local environment, including staticobjects, dynamic objects, people, gestures and various lighting,atmospheric and acoustic conditions. Thus, in some embodiments, theenvironment-sensing system may include image-based 3D reconstructionsoftware embedded in a local computing system (e.g., the processor 170)and operable to digitally reconstruct one or more objects or informationdetected by the sensors 164.

In one exemplary embodiment, the environment-sensing system provides oneor more of the following: motion capture data (including gesturerecognition), depth sensing, facial recognition, object recognition,unique object feature recognition, voice/audio recognition andprocessing, acoustic source localization, noise reduction, infrared orsimilar laser projection, as well as monochrome and/or color CMOSsensors (or other similar sensors), field-of-view sensors, and a varietyof other optical-enhancing sensors. It should be appreciated that theenvironment-sensing system may include other components other than thosediscussed above.

As mentioned above, the processor 170 may, in some embodiments, beintegrated with other components of the head-mounted system 160,integrated with other components of system of the environment 100, ormay be an isolated device (wearable or separate from the user 108) asshown in FIG. 1 . The processor 170 may be connected to variouscomponents of the head-mounted system 160 through a physical, wiredconnection, or through a wireless connection such as, for example,mobile network connections (including cellular telephone and datanetworks), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or any other wireless connection protocol.The processor 170 may include a memory module, integrated and/oradditional graphics processing unit, wireless and/or wired internetconnectivity, and codec and/or firmware capable of transforming datafrom a source (e.g., the computing network 125, and the user-sensingsystem and the environment-sensing system from the head-mounted system160) into image and audio data, wherein the images/video and audio maybe presented to the user 108 via the user interface (not shown).

The processor 170 handles data processing for the various components ofthe head-mounted system 160 as well as data exchange between thehead-mounted system 160 and 2D content from web pages displayed oraccessed by web browser 110 and the computing network 125. For example,the processor 170 may be used to buffer and process data streamingbetween the user 108 and the computing network 125, thereby enabling asmooth, continuous and high fidelity user experience.

Deconstructing 2D content from a web page into elements and mapping theelements to be displayed on surfaces in a 3D environment may beaccomplished in an intelligent and logical manner. A predetermined setof rules may be available to recommend, suggest, or dictate where toplace certain types of elements/content identified within a 2Dcontent/web page. For example, certain types of 2D content elements mayhave one or more content elements that may need to be mapped to aphysical or virtual object surface amenable for storing and displayingthe one or more elements while other types of 2D content elements may bea single object, such as a main video or main article within a web page,in which case, the single object may be mapped to a surface that makesthe most sense to display a single object to the user.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example mapping of elements of a 2D content to auser's 3D environment, according to some embodiments. Environment 200depicts a 2D content (e.g., a web page) displayed or accessed by a webbrowser 110 and a user's physical environment 105. The dotted lines withan arrow head depict elements (e.g., particular types of content) fromthe 2D content (e.g., web page) that are mapped to and displayed uponthe user's physical environment 105. Certain elements from the 2Dcontent are mapped to certain physical or virtual objects in the user'sphysical environment 105 based on either web designer hints orpre-defined browser rules.

As an example, 2D content accessed or displayed by the web browser 110may be a web page having multiple tabs, wherein a current active tab 260is displayed and a secondary tab 250 is currently hidden until selectedupon to display on the web browser 110. Displayed within the active tab260 is typically a web page. In this particular example, the active tab260 is displaying a YOUTUBE page including a main video 220, usercomments 230, and suggested videos 240. As depicted in this exemplaryexample, FIG. 2 , the main video 220 may be mapped to display onvertical surface 182, the user comments 230 may be mapped to display onhorizontal surface 192, and suggested videos 240 may be mapped todisplay on a different vertical surface 186 from the vertical surface182. Additionally, the secondary tab 250 may be mapped to display on avirtual Rolodex 190 and/or on a multi-stack virtual object 194. In someembodiments, specific content within the secondary tab 250 may be storedin the multi-stack virtual object 194. In other embodiments, the entirecontent residing within the secondary tab 250 may be stored and/ordisplayed on the multi-stack virtual object 194. Likewise, the virtualRolodex 190 may contain specific content from the secondary tab 250 orthe virtual Rolodex 190 may contain the entire content residing withinthe secondary tab 250.

The vertical surface 182 may be any type of structure which may alreadybe on a main wall 180 of a room (depicted as the user's physicalenvironment 105) such as a window pane or a picture frame. In someembodiments, the vertical surface 182 may be an empty wall where thehead-mounted system 160 determines an optimal size of the frame of thevertical surface 182 that is appropriate for the user 108 to view themain video 220. This determination of the size of the vertical surface182 may be based at least in part on the distance the user 108 is fromthe main wall 180, the size and dimension of the main video 220, thequality of the main video 220, the amount of uncovered wall space,and/or the pose of the user when looking at the main wall 180. Forinstance, if the quality of the main video 220 is of high definition,the size of the vertical surface 182 may be larger because the qualityof the main video 220 will not be adversely affected by the verticalsurface 182. However, if the video quality of the main video 220 is ofpoor quality, having a large vertical surface 182 may greatly hamper thevideo quality, in which case, the methods and systems of the presentdisclosure may resize/redefine the vertical surface 182 to be smaller tominimize poor video quality from pixilation.

The vertical surface 186, like the vertical surface 182, is a verticalsurface on an adjacent wall (e.g., side wall 184) in the user's physicalenvironment 105. In some embodiments, based on the orientation of theuser 108, the side wall 184 and the vertical surface 186 may appear tobe slanted surfaces on an incline. The slanted surfaces on an inclinemay be a type of orientation of surfaces in addition to vertical andhorizontal surfaces. The suggested videos 240 from the YOUTUBE web pagemay be placed on the vertical surface 186 on the side wall 184 to allowthe user 108 to be able to view suggested videos simply by moving thetheir head slightly to the right in this example.

The virtual Rolodex 190 may be a virtual object created by thehead-mounted system 160 and displayed to the user 108. The virtualRolodex 190 may have the ability for the user 108 to bi-directionallycycle through a set of virtual pages. The virtual Rolodex 190 maycontain entire web pages or it may contain individual articles or videosor audios. As shown in this example, the virtual Rolodex 190 may containa portion of the content from the secondary tab 250 or in someembodiments, the virtual Rolodex 190 may contain the entire page of thesecondary tab 250. In some embodiments, the virtual Rolodex 190 may alsocontain all or part of the contents of the first tab. The user 108 maybi-directionally cycle through content within the virtual Rolodex 190 bysimply focusing on a particular tab within the virtual Rolodex 190 andthe one or more sensors (e.g., the sensors 162) within the head-mountedsystem 160 will detect the eye focus of the user 108 and cycle throughthe tabs within the virtual Rolodex 190 accordingly to obtain relevantinformation for the user 108. In some embodiments, the user 108 maychoose the relevant information from the virtual Rolodex 190 andinstruct the head-mounted system 160 to display the relevant informationonto either an available surrounding surface or on yet another virtualobject such as a virtual display in close proximity to the user 108 (notshown).

The multi-stack virtual object 194, similar to virtual Rolodex 190, maycontain content ranging from full contents from one or more tabs orparticular contents from various web pages or tabs that the user 108bookmarks, saves for future viewing, or has open (i.e., inactive tabs).The multi-stack virtual object 194 is also similar to a real-world stackof newspapers. Each stack within the multi-stack virtual object 194 maypertain to a particular newspaper article, page, magazine issue, recipe,etc. One of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate that there can bemultiple types of virtual objects to accomplish this same purpose ofproviding a surface to place 2D content elements or content from a 2Dcontent source.

One of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate that 2D content accessedor displayed by the web browser 110 may be more than just a web page. Insome embodiments, 2D content may be pictures from a photo album, videosfrom movies, TV shows, YOUTUBE videos, interactive forms, etc. Yet inother embodiments, 2D content may be e-books, or any electronic means ofdisplaying a book. Finally, in other embodiments, 2D content may beother types of content not yet described because 2D content is generallyhow information is presented currently. If an electronic device canconsume a 2D content, then the 2D content can be used by thehead-mounted system 160 to deconstruct and display the 2D content in a3D setting (e.g., AR).

In some embodiments, mapping the accessed 2D content may includeextracting the 2D content (e.g., from the browser) and putting it on asurface (such that the content is no longer in the browser and only onthe surface), and in some embodiments, the mapping can includereplicating content (e.g., from the browser) and putting it on a surface(such that the content is both in the browser and on the surface).

Deconstructing 2D content is a technical problem that exists in therealm of the Internet and computer-related technology. 2D content suchas web pages are constructed using certain types of programminglanguages such as HTML to instruct computer processors and technicalcomponents where and how to display elements within the web pages on ascreen for a user. As discussed above, a web designer typically workswithin the limitation of a 2D canvas (e.g., a screen) to place anddisplay elements (e.g., content) within the 2D canvas. HTML tags areused to determine how an HTML document or portions within the HTMLdocument are formatted. In some embodiments, the (extracted orreplicated) 2D content can maintain the HTML tag reference, and in someembodiments, the HTML tag reference may be redefined.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for deconstructing 2Dcontent to be displayed in a 3D environment, according to someembodiments. The method includes identifying 2D content at 310,identifying elements in the 2D contents at 320, identifying surroundingsurfaces at 330, mapping identified elements in the identified 2Dcontents to identified surfaces from the identifying surroundingsurfaces at 340, and displaying elements as virtual content ontoselected surfaces at 350, wherein the selected surfaces are selectedfrom the mapping of the elements to the identified surfaces.

Identifying 2D content at 310 may involve the use of the head-mountedsystem 160 to search for digital content. Identifying 2D content at 310may also include accessing digital content on servers (e.g., the storagedevices 130) connected to the network 120. Identifying 2D content at 310may include browsing the Internet for web pages that are of interest tothe user 108. In some embodiments, identifying 2D content at 310 mayinclude voice-activated commands given by the user 108 for searchingcontent on the Internet. For example, a user 108 may be interacting witha device (e.g., head-mounted system 160) wherein the user 108 issearching for a particular video on the Internet by asking the device tosearch for the particular video by saying a command to search for avideo and then saying the name of the video and a brief description ofthe video. The device may then search the Internet and pull up the videoon a 2D browser to allow the user 108 to see the video as displayed onthe 2D browser of the device. The user 108 may then confirm that thevideo is a video that the user 108 would like to view in the spatial 3Denvironment.

Once 2D content is identified, the method identifies elements in the 2Dcontent at 320 to take inventory of the available elements within the 2Dcontent for displaying to the user 108. The elements within the 2Dcontent, for example, may include videos, articles and newslettersposted on a web page, comments and postings on a social media website,blog posts, pictures posted on various websites, audio books, etc. Theseelements within the 2D content (e.g., a web page) may contain HTML tagshaving attributes associated with HTML tags provided by a contentdesigner to define where on the web page a particular element is placedand in some cases, when and how the element is to be displayed on theweb page. In some embodiments, the methods and systems of the presentdisclosure will utilize these HTML tags and attributes as hints andsuggestions provided by the content designer to aid in the mappingprocess at 340 to determine where and how to display the element in a 3Dsetting. For example, below is an example HTML Web Page code provided bythe web page developer.

Example HTML Web Page Code Provided by a Web Page Developer

/* measurement values can be given in cm since ml objects are meant towork in the real world environment type : hint for preference in surfacetype to match to; priority : hint for preference in getting the desiredsurface during matching, with range [1,100], where 1 is low priority and100 is top priority. algorithm. higher value is higher priority (likez-index CSS property); distance-depth: for the stack layout, distancebetween adjacent stacked objects; */ <!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> ...</head> <body> ... <ml-layout id=“video” layout=“plane” style=“type:vertical; priority:100;”>  <ml-container width=“200 cm”height=“120 cm”>   <div id =“current_video” ... >    <video ... >    ...   </video>   </div>  </ml-container> </ml-layout> <ml-layoutid=“recommendations” layout=“ stack” style= “type:horizontal;priority:90; distance-depth:20 cm;”>  <ml-container width=“50 cm”height=“50 cm”>   <div id =“video_recommendation_1”>   ...   </div> </ml-container>  <ml-container width=“50 cm” height=“50 cm”>   <divid=“video_recommendation_2”>   ...   </div>  </ml-container></ml-layout> ... </body> </html>

The example HTML Web Page code provided by a web page developer includesa preference on how to display the main video on a web page, and apreference on how to display recommended (or suggested videos). Inparticular, this HTML web page code uses the tag of “style” to specifyhow to display the main video using a type value of “vertical” todesignate a vertical surface to display the video. Additionally, withinthe “style” tag, additional hints provided by the web page developer mayinclude a “priority” preference for a matching algorithm to use toprioritize which HTML element/content within the web page (e.g., themain video) should be mapped to which potential surface area. In theexample HTML Web Page code, the priority was set at a value of 100 forthe video having a vertical plane layout, wherein in this example, ahigher priority value indicates a higher priority. Additionally, in thisexample, a preference is indicated by the web page developer to placethe suggested videos in a stack having a type value of “horizontal” in astack layout, wherein the distance between the stacked objects (e.g., inthis case, a suggested video in relation to another suggested video)should be 20 cm.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for identifying elementsin a 2D content, according to some embodiments. FIG. 4 is a detailedflow disclosing identifying elements in the 2D content at 320 of FIG. 3, according to some embodiment. FIG. 4 begins with identifying elementswithin 2D content at 410, similar to identifying elements in the 2Dcontent at 320 of FIG. 3 . The method proceeds to the next step ofidentifying attributes from tags pertaining to placement of content at420. As discussed above, a web page designer, while designing andconfiguring a web page, may associate elements within the web page toHTML tags to define where and how to display each element. These HTMLtags may also include attributes pertaining to placement of the elementonto a particular portion of the web page. It is these HTML tags andtheir attributes that the head-mounted system 160 will detect andcoordinate with other components of the system to use as input as towhere the particular element could be displayed.

Extracting hints or tags from each element is performed at 430. Thehints or tags are typically formatting hints or formatting tags that areprovided by the content designer of the 2D content/web page and/or a webpage developer. As discussed above, the content designer may provideinstructions or hints, for example, in the form of HTML tags as shown inthe “Example HTML Web Page code provided by the web page developer,” toinstruct the web browser 110 to display the elements of a 2D content ina particular portion of the page or screen. In some embodiments, a webpage designer may use additional HTML tag attributes to defineadditional formatting rules. For example, if the user has a reducedsensitivity to a specific color (e.g., red), do not display red andinstead use another color, or as discussed above, if a video that had apreference to be displayed on a vertical surface cannot be displayed ona vertical surface, alternatively display the video on another(physical) surface or create a virtual surface and display the video onthe virtual surface. Below is an example HTML Page parser implemented ina browser for parsing through an HTML page to extract hints/tags fromeach element within the HTML page.

Example HTML Page Parser Implemented in a Browser

vector<WorldSurface> m_world_surfaces; vector<MLLayout> m_layouts;struct WorldSurface {  // world position of the planar surface (x, y, z) vec3 position;  // world orientation of the planar surface (x, y, z) vec3 rotation;  // width and height of the planar surface  float width; float height;  // type = vertical, horizontal, inclined, etc.  stringtype; } void PopulateWorldSurfaceList() { QueryWorldSurfacesFromEnvironment();  while (is_world_scan_in_progress){   WorldSurface surface;   surface.width =CalculateLatestSurfaceSize().width();   surface. height =CalculateLatestSurfaceSize().height();   surface.position = CalculateLatestSurfaceTransform().pos();   surface. rotation =CalculateLatestSurfaceTransform().rot();   float distance_to_surface =   (Camera().position - surface.position).distance();   vec3gravity_direction = vec3(0, −1, 0); // always down   vec3 surface_normal= CalculateLatestSurfaceNormal();   // determines surface type based onthe angle between surface   // normal and gravity vector   surface.type= DetermineLatestSurfaceType   (gravity, surface_normal);  m_world_surfaces.push_back(surface);  } } struct MLContainer {  floatwidth;  float height; } struct MLLayout {  // planar, list, grid, stack,etc.  string layout;  // hint used for matching algorithm  int priority; // hint used for matching algorithm: vertical, horizontal  string type; // any extra layout specific properties: e.g distance-depth  string[]properties;  // each layout consists of 1+ layout objects vector<MLContainer> objects; } void ParseHTMLDocumet(string url) { WebDocument document = LoadURL(url);  Tag[] tags =document.ParseTags();  for (int i = 0; i < tags.size(); i++) {   if(tags[i].name == “ml-layout”) {    MLLayout ml_layout;   ml_layout.layout = tags[i].propertyValue(“layout”);   ml_layout.priority = tags[i].propertyValue(“priority”);   ml_layout.type = tags[i].propertyValue(“type”);    ml_layouts.pushback(ml_layout);    while (tags[i].children() != NULL) {     if(tags[i].GetNextChild().name == “ml-container”) {      MLContainerml_container;      ml_container.width =      tags[i].propertyValue(“width”);      ml_container.height =      tags[i].propertyValue(“height”);     ml_layout.objects.push_back(ml_container);     }    }   }  } } voidmain() {  // url is loaded already into the page from user input  stringurl = GetWebPageURL();  ParseHTMLDocument(url);  // world is alreadybeing scanned while a device with  sensors is running PopulateWorldSurfaceList();  DoMatchLayoutsToSurfaces(ml_layouts,m_world_surfaces); }

The example HTML Page parser shows how an HTML page containing HTML tagsused to provide display preferences for particular elements/objectswithin a 2D content (e.g., web page) can be parsed and identified and/orextracted/replicated. As disclosed in the example HTML Page parser,elements within a 2D content (e.g., a web page) can be parsed using thesample code disclosed. Certain HTML tags using various element names andvalues may be identified/extracted by the HTML Page parser (e.g.,ML.layout, ML.container, etc.) to determine how the particular elementis to be displayed to a user in a 3D environment (e.g., by mapping theelement to a particular surface).

Looking up/searching alternative display forms for the one or moreelements is performed at 440. Certain formatting rules may be specifiedfor an image on a web page. For example, if the web browser 110 iscapable of displaying a 3D version of the image, the web page designermay place an additional tag or define certain attributes of a particulartag to allow the web browser 110 to recognize that the image may have analternative version of the image (e.g., a 3D version of the image). Theweb browser 110 may then access the alternative version of the image(e.g., the 3D version of the image) to be displayed in the 3D enabledbrowser.

Storing the identified elements within the 2D content is performed at450. The method may store the identified elements into a non-transitorystorage medium to be used by a mapping routine (e.g., mapping theelements to the identified surfaces at 340 of FIG. 3 ) to map theelements to particular surfaces. The non-transitory storage medium mayinclude a data storage device such as the storage device 130 or thelocal storage device 140. The elements may be stored in a particulartable such as the table disclosed in FIG. 5 , described below. In someembodiments, the identified elements within the 2D content may be storedin a transitory storage medium.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a table to store elements deconstructed froma 2D content, according to some embodiments. Elements table 500 is anexemplary table that can store the results of the identifying elementswithin 2D content at 410 of FIG. 4 in a database. The elements table 500includes, for example, information about the one or more elements withinthe 2D content including an element identification (ID) 510, apreference indicator 520 for where the element could be placed on a 3Dsurface, a parent element ID 530 if the particular element is includedwithin a parent element, a child element ID 540 if the element maycontain a child element, and a multiple entity indicator 550 to indicatewhether the element contains multiple embodiments that may warrant theneed to have the surface or virtual object that is used to display theelement be compatible with displaying multiple versions of the elements.A parent element is an element/object within the 2D content that maycontain sub-elements (e.g., child elements). For example, the Element IDhaving a value of 220 (e.g., main video 220) has a Parent Element IDvalue of 260 (e.g., active tab 260), which indicates that the main video220 is a child element of the active tab 260. Or stated in a differentway, the main video 220 is included within the active tab 260.Continuing with the same example, the main video 220 has a Child ElementID 230 (e.g., user comments 230) which indicates that the user comments230 is associated with the main video 220. One of ordinary skill in theart may appreciate the elements table 500 may be a table in a relationaldatabase or in any type of database. Additionally, the elements table500 may be an array in a computer memory (e.g., a cache) containing theresults of the identifying elements within 2D content at 410 of FIG. 4 .

Each row of rows 560 in the elements table 500 corresponds to an elementfrom within a web page. The element ID 510 is a column containing aunique identifier for each element (e.g., an element ID). In someembodiments, an element's uniqueness may be defined as a combination ofthe element ID 510 column and another column within the table (e.g., thepreference 520 column if there is more than one preference identified bythe content designer). The preference 520 is a column whose value may bedetermined based at least in part on the HTML tags and attributesdefined by the content designer/developer (e.g., a web page designer)and identified by the system and method as disclosed in extracting hintsor tags from each element at 430 of FIG. 4 . In other embodiments, thepreference 520 column may be determined based at least in part onpredefined browser rules to specify where certain types of elementswithin a web page should be displayed within a 3D environment. Thesepredefined rules may provide suggestions to the systems and methods todetermine where to best place the element in the 3D environment.

The parent element ID 530 is a column that contains the element ID of aparent element that this particular element in the current row isdisplayed within or is related to. A particular element within a webpage may be embedded, placed within another element of the page, orrelated to another element on the page. For example, in the currentembodiment, a first entry of the element ID 510 column stores a value ofelement ID 220 corresponding to the main video 220 of FIG. 2 . Apreference value in the preference 520 column corresponding to the mainvideo 220 is determined based on the HTML tags and/or attributes and, inthe current embodiment, is that this element should be placed in the“Main” location of a user's physical environment 105. Depending on thecurrent location of the user 108, that main location may be a wall in aliving room, or a stove top hood in a kitchen that the user 108 iscurrently looking at, or if in a wide-open space, may be a virtualobject that is projected in front of the line of site of the user 108that the main video 220 may be projected onto. More information on howthe elements of 2D content are displayed to the user 108 will bedisclosed in a later section. In continuing with the current example,the parent element ID 530 column stores a value of element ID 260corresponding to the active tab 260 of FIG. 2 . Therefore, the mainvideo 220 is a child of the active tab 260.

The child element ID 540 is a column that contains the element ID of achild element that this particular element in the current row hasdisplayed within or is related to. A particular element within a webpage may be embedded, placed within another element of the page, orrelated to another element on the page. In continuing with the currentexample, the child element ID 540 column stores a value of element ID230 corresponding to the user comments 230 of FIG. 2 .

The multiple entity indicator 550 is a column that indicates whether theelement contains multiple entities that may warrant the need to have thesurface or virtual object that is used to display the element becompatible with displaying multiple versions of the elements (e.g., theelement may be the user comments 230, wherein for the main video 220,there may be more than one comment available). In continuing with thecurrent example, the multiple entity indicator 550 column stores a valueof “N” to indicate that the main video 220 does not have or correspondto multiple main videos in the active tab 260 (e.g., “No” multipleversions of the main video 220).

In continuing with the current example, a second entry of the element ID510 column stores a value of element ID 230 corresponding to the usercomments 230 of FIG. 2 . A preference value in the preference 520 columncorresponding to the user comments 230 shows a preference of“Horizontal” to indicate that the user comments 230 should be placed ona “Horizontal” surface somewhere in the user's physical environment 105.As discussed above, the horizontal surface will be determined based onavailable horizontal surfaces in the user's physical environment 105. Insome embodiments, the user's physical environment 105 may not have ahorizontal surface, in which case, the systems and methods of thecurrent disclosure may identify/create a virtual object with ahorizontal surface to display the user comments 230. In continuing withthe current example, the parent element ID 530 column stores a valueelement ID 220 corresponding to the main video 220 of FIG. 2 , and themultiple entity indicator 550 column stores a value of “Y” to indicatethat user comments 230 may contain more than one value (e.g., more thanone user comment).

The remaining rows within the elements table 500 contain information forthe remaining elements of interest to the user 108. One of ordinaryskills in the art may appreciate that storing the results of theidentifying elements within the 2D content at 410 improves thefunctioning of the computer itself because once this analysis has beenperformed on the 2D content, it may be retained by the system and methodfor future analysis of the 2D content if another user is interested inthe same 2D content. The system and method for deconstructing thisparticular 2D content may be avoided since it has already been completedbefore.

In some embodiments, the element table 500 may be stored in the storagedevices 130. In other embodiments, the element table 500 may be storedin the local storage device 140 for quick access to recently viewed 2Dcontent or for possible revisit to the recently viewed 2D content. Yetin other embodiments, the element table 500 may be stored at both thestorage devices 130 located remotely from the user 108 and the localstorage device 140 located local to the user 108.

Returning to FIG. 3 , the method continues with identifying surroundingsurfaces at 330. The user 108 may view the user's physical environment105 through the head-mounted system 160 to allow the head-mounted system160 to capture and identify surrounding surfaces such as a wall, atable, a painting, a window frame, a stove, a refrigerator, a TV, etc.The head-mounted system 160 is aware of the real objects within theuser's physical environment 105 because of the sensors and cameras onthe head-mounted system 160 or with any other type of similar device. Insome embodiments, the head-mounted system 160 may match the real objectsobserved within the user's physical environment 105 with virtual objectsstored within the storage devices 130 or the local storage device 140 toidentify surfaces available with such virtual objects. Real objects arethe objects identified within the user's physical environment 105.Virtual objects are objects that are not physically present within theuser's physical environment, but may be displayed to the user to appearas though the virtual objects are present in the user's physicalenvironment. For example, the head-mounted system 160 may detect animage of a table within the user's physical environment 105. The tableimage may be reduced to a 3D point cloud object for quick and efficientcomparison and matching at the storage devices 130 or the local storagedevice 140. If a match of the real object and a 3D point cloud object(e.g., of a table) is detected, the system and method will identify thetable as having a horizontal surface because the 3D point cloud objectrepresenting a table is defined as having a horizontal surface. A moredetailed description of the identifying surrounding surfaces isdisclosed below in FIG. 6 .

In some embodiments, the virtual objects may be extracted objects,wherein an extracted object may be a physical object identified withinthe user's physical environment 105, but is displayed to the user as avirtual object in the physical object's place so that additionalprocessing and associations can be made to the extracted object thatwould not be able to be done on the physical object itself (e.g., tochange the color of the physical object to highlight a particularfeature of the physical object, etc.). Additionally, extracted objectsmay be virtual objects extracted from the 2D content (e.g., a web pagefrom a browser) and displayed to the user 108. For example, a user 108may choose an object such as a couch from a web page displayed on a 2Dcontent/web page to be displayed within the user's physical environment105. The system may recognize the chosen object (e.g., the couch) anddisplay the extracted object (e.g., the couch) to the user 108 as if theextracted object (e.g., the couch) is physically present in the user'sphysical environment 105. Additionally, virtual objects may also includeobjects that have surfaces for displaying content (e.g., a transparentdisplay screen in close proximity to the user for viewing certaincontent) that are not even in the physical presence of the user'sphysical environment 105, but from a displaying content from the 2Dcontent perspective, may be an ideal display surface to present certaincontent to the user.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for identifying surfacesfrom a user's local environment, according to some embodiments. FIG. 6is a detailed flow disclosing the identifying surrounding surfaces at330 of FIG. 3 . FIG. 6 begins with identifying a user's currentsurroundings at 610, similar to identifying surrounding surfaces at 330of FIG. 3 . The method proceeds to the next step of determining a user'spose at 620.

Determining the user's pose at 620 is an important step to identifying auser's current surrounding because the user's pose will provideperspective for the user 108 in relation to the objects within theuser's physical environment 105. For example, referring back to FIG. 1 ,the user 108, using the head-mounted system 160, is observing the user'sphysical environment 105. Determining the user's pose at 620 (i.e.,vector and/or origin position information relative to the world) willhelp the head-mounted system 160 understand, for example, (1) how tallthe user 108 is in relation to the ground, (2) the angle the user 108has to rotate their head to move about and capture the images of theroom, and (3) the distance between the user 108 to the table 188, themain wall 180 and the side wall 184. Additionally, the pose of the user108 is also helpful to determine the angle of the head-mounted system160 when observing vertical surfaces 182 and 186, along with othersurfaces within user's physical environment 105.

At 630, the method identifies dimensions of the surrounding surfaces.Each candidate surface within the user's physical environment 105 istagged and categorized with a corresponding dimension. In someembodiments, each candidate surface within the user's physicalenvironment 105 is also tagged and categorized with a correspondingorientation. This information will be helpful to identify which elementshould map to which surfaces, based at least in part on the dimension ofthe surface, the orientation of the surface, the distance the user 108is away from the particular surface, and type of information that needsto be displayed for the element. For example, a video can be shownfurther away than a blog or an article that may contain an abundance ofinformation where the text size of the article may be too small for auser to see if displayed on a distant wall with small dimensions.

At 640, the method stores an inventory of the surrounding surfaces intoa non-transitory storage medium to be used by a mapping routine (e.g.,mapping the elements to the identified surfaces 340 of FIG. 3 ) to mapthe elements to particular surfaces. The non-transitory storage mediummay include a data storage device such as the storage devices 130 or thelocal storage device 140. The identified surfaces may be stored in aparticular table such as the table disclosed in FIG. 7 described below.In some embodiments, the identified surfaces may be stored in atransitory storage medium.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a table to store an inventory of surfacesidentified from a user's local environment, according to someembodiments. Surfaces table 700 is an exemplary table that can store theresults of the identifying surrounding surfaces process in a database.The surfaces table 700 includes, for example, information about surfaceswithin a user's physical environment 105 having data columns includingsurface ID 710, width 720, height 730, orientation 740, real or virtualindicator 750, multiple 760, and position 770. One of ordinary skill inthe art may appreciate the surfaces table 700 may be a table in arelational database or in any type of database. Additionally, thesurfaces table 700 may be an array in a computer memory (e.g., a cache)storing the results of the identifying surrounding surfaces at 330 ofFIG. 3 .

Each row of rows 780 in the surfaces table 700 may correspond to asurface from the user's physical environment 105 or a virtual surfacethat may be displayed to the user 108 within the user's physicalenvironment 105. The surface ID 710 is a column containing a uniqueidentifier to uniquely identify a particular surface (e.g., a surfaceID). The dimensions of the particular surface are stored in the width720 and height 730 columns.

The orientation 740 is a column indicating an orientation of the surfacewith respect to the user 108 (e.g., vertical, horizontal, etc.). Thereal/virtual 750 is a column indicating whether the particular surfaceis located on a real object within the user's physical environment 105as perceived by the user 108 using the head-mounted system 160, or ifthe particular surface is located on a virtual object that will begenerated by the head-mounted system 160 and displayed within the user'sphysical environment 105. The head-mounted system 160 may have togenerate virtual objects for situations where the user's physicalenvironment 105 may not contain enough surfaces to display an amount ofcontent that the user 108 wishes to display. In these embodiments, thehead-mounted system 160 may search from a database of existing virtualobjects that may have appropriate surface dimensions to display certaintypes of elements identified for display. The database may be from thestorage devices 130 or the local storage device 140.

The multiple 760 is a column indicating whether the surface/object iscompatible with displaying multiple versions of an element (e.g., theelement may be the secondary tab 250 of FIG. 2 , wherein for aparticular web browser 110, there may be more than one secondary (i.e.,inactive) tab (e.g., one web page per tab). If the multiple 760 columnhas a value of “Multiple,” such as the case for a fourth entry of thesurface ID column storing a value of 190 corresponding to the virtualRolodex 190 of FIG. 2 , and a fifth entry of the surface ID columnstoring a value of 194 corresponding to the multi-stack virtual object194 of FIG. 2 ), the system and method will know that if there is anelement that may have multiple versions of the element, as is the casefor inactive tabs, these are the types of surfaces that can accommodatethe multiple versions.

The position 770 is a column indicating the position of the physicalsurface relative to a frame of reference or a reference point. Theposition of the physical surface may be pre-determined to be the centerof the surface as shown in the column header of position 770 in FIG. 7 .In other embodiments, the position may be pre-determined to be anotherreference point of the surface (e.g., the front, back, top or bottom ofthe surface). The position information may be represented as a vectorand/or positional information from the center of the physical surfacerelative to some frame of reference or reference point. There may beseveral ways to represent position in the surface table 700. Forexample, the value of the position for surface ID 194 in surface table700 is represented in the abstract to illustrate vector information andframe of reference information (e.g., the ‘frame’ subscript). The x,y,zare 3D coordinates in each spatial dimension and frame denotes whichframe of reference the 3D coordinates are with respect to.

For example, surface ID 186 shows a position of the center of thesurface 186 to be (1.3, 2.3, 1.3) with respect to a real world origin.As another example, surface ID 192 shows a position of the center of thesurface 192 to be (x,y,z) with respect to a user frame of reference andsurface ID 190 shows a position of the center of the surface 190 to be(x,y,z) with respect to another surface 182. The frame of reference isimportant to disambiguate which frame of reference is currently beingused. In the case of a real world origin as the frame of reference, itis generally a static frame of reference. However, in other embodimentswhen the frame of reference is a user frame of reference, the user maybe a moving reference frame, in which case, the plane (or vectorinformation) may be moving and changing with the user if the user ismoving and the user frame of reference is used as the frame ofreference. In some embodiments, the frame of reference for each surfacemay be the same (e.g., user frame of reference). In other embodiments,the frame of reference for surfaces stored within a surface table 700may be different, depending on surface (e.g., user frame of reference,world frame of reference, another surface or object in the room, etc.)

In the current example, the values stored within the surfaces table 700contain physical surfaces (e.g., the vertical surfaces 182 and 186, andthe horizontal surface 192) identified within the user's physicalenvironment 105 of FIG. 2 and virtual surfaces (e.g., the virtualRolodex 190 and the multi-stack virtual object 194). For example, in thecurrent embodiment, a first entry of the surface ID 710 column stores avalue of surface ID 182 corresponding to the vertical surface 182 ofFIG. 2 . A width value in the width 720 column and a height value in theheight 730 column corresponding to the width and height of the verticalsurface 182, respectively, indicate the vertical surface 182 has adimension of 48″ (W) by 36″ (H). Similarly, an orientation value in theorientation 740 column indicates the vertical surface 182 has anorientation of “Vertical.” Additionally, a real/virtual value in thereal/virtual 750 column indicates the vertical surface 182 is a “R”(e.g., real) surface. A multiple value in the multiple 760 columnindicates that vertical surface 182 is “Single” (e.g., can only hold asingle content). Finally, a position 770 column indicates the positionof the vertical surface 182 with respect to the user 108 with a vectorinformation of (2.5, 2.3, 1.2)_(user).

The remaining rows within the surfaces table 700 contain information forthe remaining surfaces within the user's physical environment 105. Oneof ordinary skills in the art may appreciate that storing the results ofthe identifying surrounding surfaces at 330 of FIG. 3 improves thefunctioning of the computer itself because once this analysis has beenperformed on the surrounding surfaces, it may be retained by thehead-mounted system 160 for future analysis of the user's surroundingsurfaces if another user or the same user 108 is in the same physicalenvironment 105 but interested in different 2D content. The processingsteps for identifying surrounding surfaces at 330 may be avoided sincethese processing steps have already been completed before. The onlydifferences may include identifying additional or different virtualobjects to be available based at least in part on the elements table 500identifying the elements with the different 2D content.

In some embodiments, the surfaces table 700 is stored in the storagedevices 130. In other embodiments, the surfaces table 700 is stored inthe local storage device 140 of the user 108 for quick access torecently viewed 2D content or for possible revisit to the recentlyviewed 2D content. Yet in other embodiments, the surfaces table 700 maybe stored at both the storage devices 130 located remotely from the user108 and the local storage device 140 located local to the user 108.

Returning to FIG. 3 , the method continues with mapping elements toidentified surfaces at 340 using a combination of the identifiedelements from the identifying elements in the 2D content 320 and theidentified surrounding surfaces from the identifying surroundingsurfaces at 330 and in some embodiments, using virtual objects asadditional surfaces. Mapping the identified elements to the identifiedsurfaces may involve multiple factors, some of which may includeanalyzing hints provided by a 2D content designer/author via HTML tagelements defined by the 2D content designer/author by using an HTML Pageparser such as the example HTML Page parser discussed above. Otherfactors may include selecting from a pre-defined set of rules of how andwhere to map certain 2D content as provided by an AR browser, ARinterface, and/or cloud storage. FIG. 8 provides a detailed flow of themapping process of mapping one or more elements from the 2D content toidentified surfaces.

FIG. 8 depicts a flow diagram illustrating a method for mapping elementsfrom 2D content to surfaces, according to some embodiments. FIG. 8 is adetailed flow disclosing the mapping elements to identified surfaces at340 of FIG. 3 .

At 810, the method determines whether an identified element containshints provided by the 2D content designer. The 2D content designer mayprovide hints as to where to best display a particular element when the2D content designer originally designed the 2D content. For example, themain video 220 of FIG. 2 may be a YOUTUBE video displayed on a web pagewithin the active tab 260. The 2D content designer (e.g., web pagedesigner) may provide a hint to indicate that the main video 220 is bestdisplayed on a flat vertical surface in the direct view of the user 108.In some embodiments, this may be accomplished by using existing HTML tagelements, originally designed for 2D web page content, to further definehow a particular content element within the 2D content may be displayedif a 3D display environment is available. As another example, a 2Dcontent designer may provide a hint that states that a 3D image isavailable instead of a 2D image for a particular web page. For example,in the case of the 2D image, the 2D content designer may, in addition toproviding the basic HTML tags to identify the source of the 2D content,provide other infrequently used HTML tags to identify the source of a 3Dversion of the 2D image and in addition, provide a hint that if the 3Dversion of the image is used, to display it prominently in front of theuser's view (e.g., in a main frame of a 3D layout). In some embodiments,the 2D content designer may provide this additional ‘hint’ to a 3D imagelocation of the 2D image just in case the web browser 110 rendering the2D content may have 3D displaying functionalities to leverage theenhanced 3D image. One skilled in the art may appreciate there are manyother ways a 2D content designer may provide hints as to where aparticular content element should be placed in a 2D layout other thanwhat has been disclosed herein and that these are some examples ofdifferent ways a 2D content designer may provide hints to best displaycertain or all elements within a 2D content.

In another embodiment, the HTML tag standard may include new HTML tagsor the creation of a similar mark-up language for providing hints of 3Dobject placement in a user's surrounding for AR/VR specific types ofbrowsers such as the Example HTML Web Page provided by the web pagedeveloper discussed above. As of this writing, these new HTML tags havenot yet been created and/or adopted as standard tags within the HTMLlanguage. However, once the HTML standard includes these types ofadditional tags, certain embodiments of the current methods and systemswill leverage these new tags to further provide a mapping of theidentified elements to identified surfaces. One skilled in the art mayappreciate there are many other languages other than HTML tags that maybe modified or adopted to further provide hints for how content elementsshould best be displayed in a 3D environment and that new HTML taggingstandards is just one way to achieve such a goal.

At 820, the method determines whether to use hints provided by the 2Dcontent designer or to use pre-defined sets of rules to map the one ormore content elements from the 2D content to certain types of 3Dsurfaces. In some embodiments, where there are no hints provided by the2D content designer for a particular content element, the system andmethod may determine, using the pre-defined sets of rules, the best wayto map the content element to the surfaces. In other embodiments, evenwhen there may be hints for placement of the content element provided bythe 2D content designer, the system and method may also determine thatit may be best to use the pre-defined sets of rules to map the contentelements to the surfaces. However, in other embodiments, the system andmethod may determine that the hints provided by the 2D content designerare sufficient and thus use the hints to map the content elements to thesurfaces. In the end, it is the ultimate decision of the AR browser thatdetermines whether to use hints provided by the 2D content designer orto use pre-defined rules to map content elements to surfaces.

At 830, assuming it was determined that using the hints provided by the2D content designer is the way to proceed, the method analyzes the hintsand searches the inventory of identified surrounding surfaces that maybe used to display the particular content element based at least in parton the hint (e.g., querying the surfaces table 700). At 840, the methodruns a best-fit algorithm to choose a best-fit surface for theparticular content element based on the provided hint. The best-fitalgorithm, for example, may take a hint of “main content” for aparticular content element within the particular web page and try toidentify a 3D surface from among the available identified surroundingsurfaces that is front and center with respect to the user 108 in the 3Denvironment. For example, the main video 220 of FIG. 2 is mapped to thevertical surface 182 because the main video 220 has a preference valueof “Main” in the preference 520 column of the elements table 500 of FIG.5 within the active tab 260 and the vertical surface 182 is the surfacethat is in the direct vision of the user 108 and has an optimal sizeddimension to display a main video 220.

At 850, the method stores the mapping results for the content elementsin a mapping of elements to surfaces table in a non-transitory storagemedium to be used by a display algorithm to display the content elementsonto their respectively mapped surfaces, whether the surfaces are theidentified surrounding surfaces or virtual objects displayed in theuser's surrounding environment. The non-transitory storage medium mayinclude a data storage device such as the storage devices 130 or thelocal storage device 140. The mapping results may be stored in aparticular table such as the table disclosed in FIG. 9 , describedbelow.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a table to store the mapping of contentelements from a 2D content to surfaces, according to some embodiments.Mapping table 900 is an exemplary table that stores results of thecontent elements mapped to surfaces process into a database. The mappingtable 900 includes, for example, information about the content element(e.g., element ID) and the surface that the content element is mapped to(e.g., surface ID). One of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate themapping table 900 may be a table stored in a relational database or inany type of database or storage medium. Additionally, the mapping table900 may be an array in a computer memory (e.g., a cache) containing theresults of the mapping of elements to identified surrounding surfaces at340 of FIG. 3 .

Each row of the mapping table 900 corresponds to a content element fromthe 2D content mapped to a surface either in the user's physicalenvironment 105 or a virtual object that is displayed to the user 108,wherein the virtual object appears to be an object in the user'sphysical environment 105. For example, in the current embodiment, afirst entry of the element ID column stores a value of element ID 220corresponding to the main video 220. A surface ID value in the surfaceID column corresponding to the main video 220 is 182 corresponding tothe vertical surface 182. In this manner, the main video 220 is mappedto the vertical surface 182 Similarly, the user comments 230 are mappedto the horizontal surface 192, the suggested videos 240 are mapped tothe vertical surface 186, and the secondary tab 250 is mapped to thevirtual Rolodex 190. The element IDs in the mapping table 900 may beassociated to element IDs stored in the elements table 500 of FIG. 5 .The surface IDs in the mapping table 900 may be associated to surfaceIDs stored in the surfaces table 700 of FIG. 7 .

Returning to FIG. 8 , at 860, assuming it was determined that using thepredefined rules is the way to proceed, the method queries a databasecontaining mapping rules of content elements to surfaces and determinesfor a particular content element within a web page, which types ofsurfaces should be considered for mapping the content element. Forexample, the rules returned for the main video 220 from FIG. 2 mayindicate that main video 220 should be mapped to vertical surfaces, andthus after searching the surfaces table 700, multiple candidate surfacesare revealed (e.g., the vertical surfaces 182 and 186, and the virtualRolodex 190). At 870, the pre-defined sets of rules may run a best-fitalgorithm to choose from the available candidate surfaces, which surfaceis the best fit for this main video 220. Based at least in part on thebest-fit algorithm, it is determined that the main video 220 should bemapped to the vertical surface 182 because of all of the candidatesurfaces, the vertical surface 182 is a surface that is in the directline of sight of the user 108 and the vertical surface 182 has the bestdimension for displaying a video. Once the mapping of the one or moreelements is determined, at 850 the method stores the mapping results forthe content elements in a mapping of elements to surfaces table in anon-transitory storage medium as described above.

Returning to FIG. 3 , the method continues with displaying the one ormore elements as virtual content onto mapped surfaces at 350. Thehead-mounted system 160 may include one or more display devices withinthe head-mounted system 160 such as mini projectors (not shown) todisplay information. The one or more elements are displayed onto therespective mapped surfaces as mapped at 340. Using the head-mountedsystem 160, the user 108 will see the content on the respective mappedsurfaces. One of ordinarily skill in the art may appreciate the contentelements are displayed to appear to be physically attached on thevarious surfaces (physical or virtual) but in actuality, the contentelements are actually projected onto the physical surfaces as perceivedby the user 108 and in the cases of virtual objects, the virtual objectsare displayed to appear to be attached on the respective surfaces of thevirtual objects. One of ordinarily skill in the art may appreciate thatwhen the user 108 turns their head or looks up or down, the displaydevices within the head-mounted system 160 may continue to keep thecontent elements affixed to their respective surfaces to further providethe perception to the user 108 that the content are affixed to themapped surfaces. In other embodiments, the user 108 may change thecontent of the user's physical environment 105 by a motion made by head,hands, eyes or voice of the user 108.

Physical Manipulation of Objects

Some embodiments of the invention are directed to an approach to providecreation, physical navigation, and manipulation of objects. Unlike knowncomputing systems that limit the scope of interaction with users to onlyrepresentations of objects displayed in 2D space with the use ofconventional mouse/keyboard type interactions to manipulate objects, thepresent embodiment pertains to interactions by users in 3D space thatallows physical interactions with the computing system. This permitsusers to utilize physical movements and gestures to control the movementand placement of objects in the interactive environment.

FIG. 10A shows a flowchart of an approach to implement physicalplacement and manipulation of objects according to some embodiments. At1001, one or more interactable objects are identified and presented tothe user through the display device of the mixed reality system for ahost application. The interactable objects may include both real objectsand virtual objects. The virtual objects are objects that only exist asconstructs within the virtualized universe and are generated/displayedas computer-generated renderings to the user through a head-mounteddisplay device. The real objects may be displayed either as digitalcomputer generated display object renderings that corresponds to thereal object (e.g., for a VR application) or viewable as the real objectitself through a transparent portion of the display device (e.g., for anAR application). In some embodiments, interactable objects may be realor virtual objects that cause a change in the HMD system when aninteraction is detected between the interactable object and the user orthe HMD system.

At 1003, a user control input is received to select one or more of theinteractable objects. This selection may be facilitated by using acontroller device (such as a mouse or haptics controller) to hover apointer object, where triggering of a button or trigger identifies theuser's desire to select the object(s) that the pointer is currentlyhovering over. The object hovered over by the pointer may be aselectable link/URL that corresponds to source data for the interactableobject. Alternatively, selection may occur with only physicalmovements/gestures by the user—without the need for a user to manipulatea control device. For example, the mixed reality system may employ oneor more camera devices that track the movements of a user's hand/arm,and can therefore identify when the user's hand is hovering over aninteractable object/link. Certain gestures may be pre-configured withinthe system to be recognized as a “selection” gesture (e.g., adouble-shake of the hand when the hand is configured in a selectionposition such as when the user's hand is held with a pointer fingerpointed over/at an object). Therefore, when the selection gesture isrecognized while the user's hand is hovered over an interactable object,that object will be recognized by the system as being selected by theuser. Other embodiments of selection gestures are described below inconnection with “release” gestures.

At 1005, the mixed reality system identifies and tracks a physicalmovement of the user with respect to the selected object. For example,while the user has selected an object at a first location, the user maydesire to move that object to a second location. With the presentembodiment, that movement of the object to the second location may beimplemented by physical movement of the user from the first location tothe second location. This may occur, for example, by movement of theuser's selection arm from the first location to the second locationand/or where the user walks to a second physical location. The physicalmovement of the user may be recognized and tracked by identifying anychanges of position for a controller device that is being held by theuser, e.g., by tracking the physical movement of a haptics controllerheld by the user via positional changes of any sensors/emitters that maybe embedded within the controller device and/or visually trackingmovement of any markers on the controller device. Alternatively, thephysical movement of the user may be recognized and tracked byidentifying physical movement of relevant portion(s) of the user'sphysical body, e.g., where a camera device visually tracks the movementand location of the user's selection arm/hand.

While the user is engaged in the physical movement, at 1007, the dataassociated with the interactable object(s) are correspondingly displayedinto new positions/locations that correlate to the user's movements. Forexample, if the user has selected an object with a selection arm and iscurrently moving the selection arm from a first location to a newlocation, the data associated with the interactable object (i.e.selected object) will be visually displayed in the second location thatcorresponds to the movement of the user's arm. For efficiency purposes,some embodiments may only display a thumbnail display and/orlow-resolution preview of the data associated with the interactableobject during any ongoing movements, with a high-resolution displayversion being implemented only upon final placement of the object.

The object may be rendered into a bounded volume hereinafter referred toas a “Prism.” Each Prism may have characteristics and properties thatallow a universe application to manage and display the Prism in theVR/AR environment such that the universe application may manage theplacement and display of the virtual content in the VR/AR environment bymanaging the Prism itself. In some embodiments, the Prism is implementedas a cubic and/or rectangular volume of space that virtual content froman application is displayed into, wherein the application is anapplication instance of the application when the application rendersinto more than one Prism. A Prism may represent a sub-tree of amulti-application scene graph for the current location. Retrieving theone or more Prisms previously deployed at the current location comprisesretrieving instance data for the one or more Prisms from an externaldatabase, and reconstructing a local Prism database with the instancedata for the one or more Prisms, wherein the instance data for eachPrism include a data structure of Prism properties defining the Prism,the Prism properties comprising at least one of a location, anorientation, an extent width, an extent height, an extent depth, ananchor type, or an anchor position, wherein the instance data for eachPrism include key value pairs of application specific propertiescomprising state information of virtual content previously rendered intothe Prism by an application. Further details regarding an approach toimplement prisms is described in U.S. Application Ser. No. 62/610,101,entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING AND DISPLAYING VIRTUAL CONTENTIN AN AUGMENTED REALITY SYSTEM,” filed on Dec. 22, 2017, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

When the user makes a recognizable physical movement while selecting aninteractable object, a new Prism is created that holds the datacorresponding to the interactable object, and is moved to a new locationto implement the movement of the data corresponding to the interactableobject. The coordinate location of the Prism for the selected object(s)is modified within the universe application to represent the newlocation of the selected object, where the appropriate properties of theprism (such as location properties) are modified to represent the newlocation coordinates.

Other properties of the object may also need to be modified to representthe new positioning of the object. For example, the orientation of theobject may change in the new location at which the object is to bedisplayed. Warping may be applied to modify the displayed orientation ofthe object in the new display location. To the extent unacceptable videoartifacts may occur as a result of the warping (e.g., where the warpingexcessively distorts the displayed object image and/or the warpingresults in excessive amounts of object data for the new orientation thatcannot be displayed), then a re-rendering may occur to render the objectfor display in the new location.

Any suitable approach may be taken to determine an orientation for thedata associated with the interactable object. For example, in someembodiments, the orientation of the data associated with theinteractable object may be a surface normal of a substantially planarcontent, or the orientation may be pre-defined and correlated to thedata associated with the interactable object to indicate the preferreddirection the host application intended the content be viewed. As anexample, an avatar would have an orientation vector with a surfacenormal from the point in between the avatar's eyes. The orientation mayalso be determined in any other suitable way that may be applied.

At some point, the user may seek to implement final placement of theselected object at a new location. This may be recognized, for example,e.g., by identifying when the user releases the selection button/triggeron a controller device. In addition, even when a controller device isnot used, a “release gesture” may be pre-configured and recognized bythe mixed-reality system to identify the location for placement of theobject by identifying the user making the appropriate gesture. At 1009,the placement of the selected object is recognized, and a finalrendering of the data associated with the selectable object is then madeat that new location.

In some embodiments, the start of a release gesture may be the same asthe end of a selection gesture. For example, a user's hand may start inan open position and close into a pinch (e.g., the selection gesture),and the user input may continue starting with the same pinch and openinto an open position (e.g., the release gesture). As such, a singleuser input/interaction may be used to select (i.e., the selectiongesture) and release (i.e., the continuous release gesture) aninteractable object. In some embodiments, the user may pinch (e.g. startwith an open hand and move fingers so the tips of the fingers touch) aselectable object, such as a URL link, drag the URL link outside of thebrowser window and release the URL (e.g. by reversing the pinchmovement), which may be considered a single user interaction. In otherembodiments, a first pinch may be used to select a virtual object and asecond pinch may be used to release the interactable object.

By way of an illustrative embodiment, this disclosure will now describewindow creation for a browser with physical navigation. To explain,consider that in mixed reality systems, a user's workspace is notlimited by the size of a display screen. Therefore, unlike conventionalbrowsers, the browser window in a mixed reality system can be placed andretained anywhere within the user's environment. The problem is thatconventional browser technologies are configured with the assumptionthat a displayable browser location must be limited to the confines of adisplay screen.

To address this limitation of conventional browsers, some embodiments ofthe invention are directed to an approach to provide physical navigationand manipulation of browser windows. The general idea is that a user ofthe mixed reality system is provided the ability to place the browserwindow to any eligible location in the user's environment, whereplacement of that window is achieved by physical manipulation activitiesof the user.

FIG. 10B shows a flowchart of an approach to implement physicalplacement and manipulation of browser windows. At 1002, the usermanipulates a pointing object (such as a cursor/pointer) to hover over alink on a browser window. Within the underlying computing system/OS thatimplements the browser, the position of the pointer object is trackedand identified (1052). This may occur, for example, by tracking andreviewing one or more event objects within the system, where the eventobjects pertain to movement events for the mouse pointer. Themouse/cursor position may be reported on the event object and receivedby a handler which is attached to the window.

At 1004, the user presses and holds a trigger control using amanipulation control mechanism. For example, a haptics controllerimplemented as a totem may be employed to allow the user to press andhold a trigger over the link. A totem is a hand-held controller thattracks its position and orientation relative to an AR/VR headset. Insome embodiments, the totem may be a six degree-of-freedom (six DOF)controller where a user may move a pointer around in altitude andazimuth (on a spherical shell) by moving the totem up or down. To movethe object closer or farther away, the user may use the joystick on thetotem to “push” or “pull”. At 1054, the underlying OS receives the eventobject indicating the triggering event that has occurred.

A preview may be generated of the link contents at 1006. In someembodiments, this is performed (at 1056) by accessing the URL associatedwith the link for which the triggering was detected. The URL is parsedto identify the location (e.g., web site), from which a locationidentifier (e.g., IP address) is identified for that location. Aconnection (e.g., a TCP connection) is then established, wherecommunications with the HTTP server is performed to identify contentthat is then rendered. In the current embodiment, the content renderingis performed on a preview basis so that a “thumbnail” based rendering isgenerated of the link content.

While continuing to hold the totem trigger, the user performs physicalnavigation (e.g., hand, arm and body movements) to point the totem tothe desired new window location. This results in physical navigation ofthe window location (1008). The physical movements may be translatedinto event objects generated by and/or pertaining to the operation ofthe totem device, which correlates to data for the movement and/orpositioning of totem (1058). This movement/positioning that is detectedfor the user's physical movement is applied to a movement/positioning ofthe preview window, with the dynamic positioning of the preview windowbeing displayed to the user in correspondence to the user's physicalmovements.

At 1010, the user then releases the totem trigger at the desiredlocation to place the window. At this point, at 1060, the browser windowis created at the coordinates corresponding to the location at which thetotem trigger was released. In accordance with some embodiments, insteadof managing browser windows in a VR/AR environment on a one-on-one basisindependently by each application, the window is instead rendered into aPrism.

FIGS. 11A-F provide an illustrated example of this approach tophysically place windows in a mixed realty environment. FIG. 11A shows arepresentation of a mixed realty environment, which includes a physicalenvironment as viewed by a user 108 through a head-mounted system 160.Content (e.g., a web page) can be viewed through a web browser 1104 thatis accessed through a network 120. The content shown in the browser 1104may include one or more selectable links 1106.

The network 120 may be the Internet, an internal network, a privatecloud network, a public cloud network, etc. The web browser 1104 is alsooperably coupled to a processor 170 via the network 120. Although theprocessor 170 is shown as an isolated component separate from thehead-mounted system 160, in an alternate embodiment, the processor 170may be integrated with one or more components of the head-mounted system160, and/or may be integrated into other system components within theenvironment 100 such as, for example, the network 120 to access acomputing network 125 and storage devices 130. The processor 170 may beconfigured with software for receiving and processing information suchas video, audio and content received from the head-mounted system 160, alocal storage device 140, the web browser 1104, the computing network125, and the storage devices 130.

The head-mounted system 160 may be a virtual reality (VR) or augmentedreality (AR) head-mounted system that includes a user interface, auser-sensing system, an environment sensing system, and a processor (allnot shown). The head-mounted system 160 presents to the user 108 aninterface for interacting with and experiencing a digital world. Suchinteraction may involve the user and the digital world, one or moreother users interfacing the environment 100, and objects within thedigital and physical world.

The user interface may include receiving 2D content and selectingelements within the 2D content by user input through the user interface.The user interface may be at least one or a combination of a hapticsinterface devices, a keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, a motion capturecontroller, an optical tracking device and an audio input device. Ahaptics interface device, such as totem 1102, is a device that allows ahuman to interact with a computer through bodily sensations andmovements. Haptics refers to a type of human-computer interactiontechnology that encompasses tactile feedback or other bodily sensationsto perform actions or processes on a computing device.

The user-sensing system may include one or more sensors operable todetect certain features, characteristics, or information related to theuser 108 wearing the head-mounted system 160. For example, in someembodiments, the sensors may include a camera or opticaldetection/scanning circuitry capable of detecting real-time opticalcharacteristics/measurements of the user 108 such as, for example, oneor more of the following: pupil constriction/dilation, angularmeasurement/positioning of each pupil, spherocity, eye shape (as eyeshape changes over time) and other anatomic data. This data may provide,or be used to calculate information (e.g., the user's visual focalpoint) that may be used by the head-mounted system 160 to enhance theuser's viewing experience. The environment-sensing system may alsoinclude one or more sensors for obtaining data from the user's physicalenvironment. Objects or information detected by the sensors may beprovided as input to the head-mounted system 160. In some embodiments,this input may represent user interaction with the virtual world.

As illustrated in FIG. 11B, the user may press and hold upon theselectable link 1106 within the browser 1104. A pointer 1108controllable by the user 108 may be employed to hover over theselectable link 1108. When the user is hovering over the link, the usermay then press and hold a trigger on totem 1102.

As shown in FIG. 11C, when the user press and holds the totem trigger, apreview window 1110 a is displayed to the user. The preview window 1110a corresponds to content pertaining to the link 1106.

The preview window 1110 a can be manipulated by the user 108 in aphysical manner to change the displayed location of the preview window1110 a. For example, while continuing to hold the totem trigger, theuser can physically move a portion of his/her body, e.g., by moving thearm holding the totem to a new location/position as shown in FIG. 11D.As illustrated in FIG. 11E, the physical movement of the user's bodychanges the location of the preview window 1110 a. This may beaccomplished, for example, by detecting a change in position/orientationof the totem 1102 that is held in the moved body portion (e.g.,detection of movement of the totem that is held in the user's hand),where detection of that physical movement is translated into acorresponding movement of the preview window. As such, display of thenew position of the preview window (as well as the window display whilein motion) can be controlled by, for example, the speed of physicalmovement of the user, distance of physical movement, direction ofphysical movement, and/or any other suitable window/display parametersthat may correspond to the physical movement. For example, a relativelysmall displacement in the arm position would be translated into arelatively small movement of the displayed preview window, while movingthe arm for a relatively larger distance would be translated to arelatively larger movement of the display window position. As anotherexample, slower movement of the arm would be translated into a slowerdisplayed movement of the preview window while in motion, while movingthe arm relatively faster would be translated to a relatively fastermovement of the preview window while in motion.

The user can then choose the location at which the browser window is tobe placed. As illustrated in FIG. 11F, when the user releases the totemtrigger, the location of the preview window at the time of release ofthe totem trigger becomes the location of the new browser window to becreated.

Therefore, the current embodiment provides an approach to select a link,move it to a new location and releasing the object to create a newwindow that permits users to place, organize and save content withintheir physical environment. Unlike conventional desktop and mobileenvironments, this placement is via physical navigation, allowing theuser to use their hand, arm, and/or body to move content around theuser's space. This form of navigation is much more efficient thanvirtual navigation used by desktop and mobile browsers and gives usersmore control over the creation and placement of browser windows withintheir space.

As described above, this approach is also advantageous because it allowsa user to both open and place a new window with one user interaction(e.g., only one push of the button). This is a significant improvementover other interaction approaches that require the user to first push abutton to open a new window, then push a button to move/place the newwindow to a second location.

As another illustrative embodiment, this disclosure will now describeplacement of any interactable object using physical manipulation. Thespecific illustrative embodiment pertains to placement of a wall hangingobject, such as a painting, virtual television, virtual monitor, or anyother object that can be placed onto a wall location. This examplesituation relates to the idea that a user may have a set of wallhangings/pictures that the user would like to hang up on wallsthroughout a house, but the user may not exactly know where to put them.The system would therefore create digital copies of the picture/paintingin a wall hangings application that can be physically manipulated by theuser to a placement location on a wall.

FIG. 10C shows a flowchart of an approach to implement physicalplacement and manipulation of wall objects according to someembodiments. At 1022, the user manipulates a user selection object (suchas a cursor/pointer) to hover over interactable content (such as a wallobject representation (icon) or a link to a wall object), on a hostapplication, such as a browser window. Within the underlying computingsystem/OS that implements the host application, the position of the userselection object is tracked and identified (1072). This may occur, forexample, by tracking and reviewing one or more event objects within thesystem, where the event objects pertain to movement events of the userselection object. The user selection object position may be reported onthe event object and received by a handler which is attached to the hostapplication.

At 1024, the user presses and holds a manipulation control mechanism,such as a trigger on a totem. For example, a haptics controllerimplemented as a totem may be employed to allow the user to press andhold a trigger to select a link, or other interactable content, such asfiles, application content, etc., such that when the interactablecontent is manipulated, additional data is accessed compared to beforethe manipulation occurred. At 1074, the underlying OS receives the eventobject indicating the manipulation control mechanism event (such aspressing or holding a totem trigger) has occurred. A manipulationcontrol mechanism event may indicate the selection of an interactableobject, or the manipulation of a selected interactable object.

A preview may be generated for the data associated with the interactableobject at 1026. In some embodiments, this is performed (at 1076) byaccessing the data associated with the interactable object, such as aURL associated with the link for which the manipulation controlmechanism was detected. In some embodiments, the interactable objectdata is parsed to identify the location (e.g., web site), from which alocation identifier (e.g., IP address) is identified for that location.A connection (e.g., a TCP connection) is then established, wherecommunications with the HTTP server is performed to identify contentthat is then rendered. In some embodiments, the content rendering isperformed on a preview basis so that a digital outline of the wallhanging is generated as the preview.

While continuing to activate the manipulation control mechanism, theuser performs physical navigation (e.g., hand, arm and/or bodymovements) to point the user selection object to the desired walllocation for the data associated with the interactable object. In someembodiments, this may result in physical navigation of the objectlocation (1028). The physical movements are translated into eventobjects generated by and/or pertaining to the operation of the totemdevice, which correlates to data for the movement and/or positioning oftotem (1078). This movement/positioning that is detected for the user'sphysical movement is applied to a movement/positioning of the previewwall hanging, with the dynamic positioning of the preview wall hangingbeing displayed to the user in correspondence to the user's physicalmovements.

At 1030, the user then releases the totem trigger at the desiredlocation to place the data associated with the interactable object atthe desired wall location. At this point, at 1080, the final version ofthe interactable object is created at the coordinates corresponding tothe location at which the totem trigger was released. The full digitalcopy of the wall hanging (e.g., located at the source URL) is used togenerate the final rendering of the interactable object at the placementlocation.

FIGS. 12A-F provide an illustrated example of this approach tophysically place wall hangings in a mixed realty environment. Thisfigure shows a representation of a mixed reality environment, whichincludes a physical environment as viewed by a user 108 through ahead-mounted system 160. The user may be located in various locationsthat include wall space 105 for which wall hanging objects may beplaced. Content (e.g., interactable objects/wall hangings) can beaccessed, e.g., through one or more icons/selectable links/icons 1106.

As illustrated in FIG. 12B, the user may press and hold upon theinteractable object 1106, e.g., where a controller operated by the user108 may be employed to hover over the interactable object 1106. When theuser is hovering over the object, the user may then press and hold atrigger on the controller to select the object.

As shown in FIG. 12C, when the user press and holds the controllertrigger, a preview 1202 of the wall hanging object is displayed to theuser. The preview 1202 corresponds to a digital outline and/or thumbnailof the wall hanging located at the link 1106, and is a visualrepresentation of the data associated with the interactable object.

The preview 1202 may be manipulated by the user 108 in a physical mannerto change the displayed location of the preview 1202. For example, whilecontinuing to hold the totem trigger, the user can physically move aportion of his/her body, e.g., by moving the arm holding the totem to anew location/position as shown in FIG. 12D. As illustrated in FIG. 12E,the physical movement of the user's body changes the location of thepreview 1202 to the corresponding wall location. This may beaccomplished, for example, by detecting a change in position/orientationof the totem 1102 that is held in the moved body portion (e.g.,detection of movement of the totem that is held in the user's hand),where detection of that physical movement is translated into acorresponding movement of the preview. As such, display of the newposition of the preview (as well as the preview display while in motion)can be controlled by, for example, the speed of physical movement of theuser, distance of physical movement, direction of physical movement,and/or any other suitable display parameters that may correspond to thephysical movement. For example, a relatively small displacement in thearm position would be translated into a relatively small movement of thedisplayed preview, while moving the arm for a relatively larger distancewould be translated to a relatively larger movement of the previewdisplay. As another example, slower movement of the arm would betranslated into a slower displayed movement of the preview while inmotion, while moving the arm relatively faster would be translated to arelatively faster movement of the preview while in motion.

The user can then choose the location at which the wall hanging is to beplaced. As illustrated in FIG. 12F, when the user releases the totemtrigger, the location of the preview at the time of release of the totemtrigger becomes the location of the newly created wall hanging. The fulldigital copy of the wall hanging from the interactable object is thenretrieved and rendered for display at the selected placement location.

There are numerous benefits to this approach. For example, this physicalapproach to implement placement of objects allows users to spatiallyorganize their tasks and to use their physical space to group content,establish relationships and create meaning—just like real world objects.In addition, rather than only using virtual menus and defaultobject/window placements, physical navigation allows the user to placecontent manually by moving their hand, arms and body. This is a muchmore efficient interface as it leverages embodied physical skillsinstinctively familiar to most people, such as spatial memory, and givesmore control to the user. This is an improvement over current technologyin that, with traditional desktop and mobile browsers, newobjects/windows are only created via the browser's file menu or linkcontext menus, especially where new objects/windows are created in adefault location which typically obscures the current location. Inaddition, computing typically requires the user to create a new digitalobject in one user interaction, and then place the newly created digitalcontent with a second user interaction, whereas the improvement onlyrequires one user interaction to do both.

ADDITIONAL EMBODIMENTS

Additional embodiments of the disclosure are described below. Theseadditional embodiments may incorporate elements from the embodimentsdisclosed above, and elements of these additional embodiments may beincorporated into the embodiments disclosed above.

-   -   1. A method, comprising        -   identifying an interactable object;        -   identifying a physical movement of a user corresponding to            the interactable object;        -   determining a coordinate location for a data associated with            the interactable object based upon the physical movement of            the user; and        -   placing the data associated with the interactable object at            the coordinate location corresponding to the physical            movement of the user.    -   2. The method of embodiment 1, wherein a user input device is        employed to detect the physical movement of the user.    -   3. The method of embodiment 2, wherein the user input device is        a haptics controller.    -   4. The method of embodiment 3, wherein the haptics controller        corresponds to a totem device having at least six degrees of        freedom.    -   5. The method of embodiment 3, wherein the physical movement of        the user is translated into event objects at a processing system        associated with the haptics controller, where the event objects        correlate to data indicating movement or positioning of the        haptics controller.    -   6. The method of embodiment 3, wherein the coordinate location        for the interactable object is determined by identifying a        location at which a trigger is released for the haptics        controller after the physical movement of the user.    -   7. The method of embodiment 2, wherein the user input device is        a camera to detect a user gesture.    -   8. The method of embodiment 1, wherein the interactable object        to open is identified by identifying a link that interacts with        a portion of the user's body.    -   9. The method of embodiment 8, wherein a preview is generated of        the link by accessing content for a URL associated with the        link.    -   10. The method of embodiment 9, wherein the physical movement of        the user corresponds to a physical movement of the preview.    -   11. The method of embodiment 1, wherein the interactable object        is both opened and placed with a single user interaction of a        computing device.    -   12. The method of embodiment 1, wherein an orientation for the        interactable object is determined by:        -   determining a surface normal of the coordinate location;        -   determining the orientation of the data associated with the            interactable object; and        -   aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location with            the orientation of the data associated with the interactable            object.    -   13. The method of embodiment 1, wherein the interactable object        comprises a wall hanging.    -   14. A system, comprising:        -   a mixed reality display device that is configured to display            three dimensional content;        -   a user input device configured to detect physical movement            of a user;        -   a processor that receives and processes data from the user            input device;        -   a memory for holding programmable code executable by the            processor, wherein the programmable code includes            instructions for identifying an interactable object,            identifying a physical movement of a user corresponding to            the interactable object, determining a coordinate location            for a data associated with the interactable object based            upon the physical movement of the user, and placing the data            associated with the interactable object at the coordinate            location corresponding to the physical movement of the user.    -   15. The system of embodiment 14, wherein the user input device        is a haptics controller.    -   16. The system of embodiment 15, wherein the haptics controller        corresponds to a totem device having at least six degrees of        freedom.    -   17. The system of embodiment 15, wherein the physical movement        of the user is translated into event objects at the processor,        where the event objects correlate to the data indicating        movement or positioning of the haptics controller.    -   18. The system of embodiment 15, wherein the coordinate location        for the interactable object is determined by identifying a        location at which a trigger is released for the haptics        controller after the physical movement of the user.    -   19. The system of embodiment 14, wherein the user input device        is a camera to detect a user gesture.    -   20. The system of embodiment 14, wherein the interactable object        to open is identified by identifying a link that interacts with        a portion of the user's body.    -   21. The system of embodiment 20, wherein a preview is generated        of the link by accessing content for a URL associated with the        link.    -   22. The system of embodiment 20, wherein the physical movement        of the user corresponds to a physical movement of the preview.    -   23. The system of embodiment 14, wherein the interactable object        comprises a wall hanging.    -   24. The system of embodiment 14, wherein the programmable code        further includes instructions for determining an orientation for        the interactable object by:        -   determining a surface normal of a coordinate location;        -   determining the orientation of data associated with the            interactable object; and        -   aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location with            the orientation of the data associated with the interactable            object.    -   25. A computer program product embodied on a computer readable        medium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a        sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor        causes the processor to execute a method comprising:        -   identifying an interactable object;        -   identifying a physical movement of a user corresponding to            the interactable object;        -   determining a coordinate location for a data associated with            the interactable object based upon the physical movement of            the user; and        -   placing the data associated with the interactable object at            the coordinate location corresponding to the physical            movement of the user.    -   26. The computer program product of embodiment 25, wherein a        user input device is employed to detect the physical movement of        the user corresponding to the window.    -   27. The computer program product of embodiment 26, wherein the        user input device is a haptics controller.    -   28. The computer program product of embodiment 27, wherein the        haptics controller corresponds to a totem device having at least        six degrees of freedom.    -   29. The computer program product of embodiment 27, wherein the        physical movement of the user is translated into event objects        at a processing system associated with the haptics controller,        where the event objects correlate to data indicating movement or        positioning of the haptics controller.    -   30. The computer program product of embodiment 27, wherein the        coordinate location for the interactable object is determined by        identifying a location at which a trigger is released for the        haptics controller after the physical movement of the user.    -   31. The computer program product of embodiment 26, wherein the        user input device is a camera to detect a user gesture.    -   32. The computer program product of embodiment 25, wherein the        window to open is identified by identifying a link that        interacts with a portion of the user's body.    -   33. The computer program product of embodiment 32, wherein a        preview is generated of the link by accessing content for a URL        associated with the link.    -   34. The computer program product of embodiment 33, wherein the        physical movement of the user corresponds to a physical movement        of the preview.    -   35. The computer program product of embodiment 25, wherein the        interactable object is both opened and placed with a single user        interaction of a computing device.    -   36. The computer program product of embodiment 35, wherein the        single user interaction comprises a single push of a button on        the computing device.    -   37. The computer program product of embodiment 25, wherein the        sequence of instructions further determines an orientation for        the interactable object by:        -   determining a surface normal of a coordinate location;        -   determining the orientation of data associated with the            interactable object; and        -   aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location with            the orientation of the data associated with the interactable            object.    -   38. A method, comprising:        -   receiving data indicating a selection of an interactable            object at the start of a user interaction,        -   receiving data indicating an end of the user interaction            with the interactable object,        -   determining a location of the interactable object at the end            of the user interaction, and        -   placing data associated with the interactable object at the            location of the interactable object at the end of the user            interaction.    -   39. The method of embodiment 38, further comprising a user input        device providing the data indicating the selection of the        interactable object and the data indicating the end of the user        interaction with the interactable object.    -   40. The method of embodiment 39, wherein the user input device        is a haptics controller.    -   41. The method of embodiment 40, wherein the haptics controller        corresponds to a totem device having at least six degrees of        freedom.    -   42. The method of embodiment 40, wherein a physical movement of        the user is translated into event objects at a processing system        associated with the haptics controller, where the event objects        correlate to data for movement or positioning of the haptics        controller.    -   43. The method of embodiment 40, wherein the location of the        interactable object at the end of the user interaction is        determined by identifying a location at which a trigger is        released for the haptics controller after the selection of the        interactable object.    -   44. The method of embodiment 39, wherein the user input device        is a camera to detect a user gesture.    -   45. The method of embodiment 44, wherein the data indicating the        selection of the interactable object corresponds to a selection        gesture.    -   46. The method of embodiment 44, wherein the data indicating the        end of the user interaction with the interactable object        corresponds to a release gesture.    -   47. The method of embodiment 38, wherein the data indicating the        selection of the interactable object corresponds to at least a        portion of the user's body interacting with a link.    -   48. The method of embodiment 47, wherein a preview is generated        of the link by accessing content for a URL associated with the        link.    -   49. The method of embodiment 48, further comprising receiving        data indicating a physical movement of the user, wherein the        physical movement of the user corresponds to a physical movement        of the preview.    -   50. The method of embodiment 38, wherein the interactable object        is both opened and placed with the user interaction.    -   51. The method of embodiment 38, wherein an orientation for the        interactable object is determined by:        -   determining a surface normal of the location of the            interactable object at the end of the user interaction;        -   determining the orientation of the data associated with the            interactable object; and        -   aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location with            the orientation of the data associated with the interactable            object.    -   52. The method of embodiment 39, wherein the interactable object        comprises a wall hanging.    -   53. A method, comprising:        -   receiving data indicating a selection of an interactable            object at the start of a user interaction,        -   receiving data indicating an end of the user interaction            with the interactable object,        -   determining a location of the interactable object at the end            of the user interaction, and        -   creating a new prism for the data associated with the            interactable object at the end of the user interaction when            the location of the interactable object at the end of the            user interaction is outside of an initial prism of the            interactable object.    -   54. The method of embodiment 53, further comprising displaying a        visual preview of the data associated with the interactable        object at the location of the interactable object between the        start and the end of the user interaction when the interactable        object is located outside the bounds of the initial prism.    -   55. The method of embodiment 53, further comprising a user input        device providing the data indicating the selection of the        interactable object and the data indicating the end of the user        interaction with the interactable object.    -   56. The method of embodiment 55, wherein the user input device        is a haptics controller.    -   57. The method of embodiment 56, wherein the haptics controller        corresponds to a totem device having at least six degrees of        freedom.    -   58. The method of embodiment 56, wherein a physical movement of        the user is translated into event objects at a processing system        associated with the haptics controller, where the event objects        correlate to data for movement or positioning of the haptics        controller.    -   59. The method of embodiment 56, wherein the location of the        interactable object at the end of the user interaction is        determined by identifying a location at which a trigger is        released for the haptics controller after the selection of the        interactable object.    -   60. The method of embodiment 55, wherein the user input device        is a camera to detect a user gesture.    -   61. The method of embodiment 60, wherein the data indicating the        selection of the interactable object corresponds to a selection        gesture.    -   62. The method of embodiment 60, wherein the data indicating the        end of the user interaction with the interactable object        corresponds to a release gesture.    -   63. The method of embodiment 53, wherein the data indicating the        selection of the interactable object corresponds to at least a        portion of the user's body interacting with a link.    -   64. The method of embodiment 63, wherein a preview is generated        of the link by accessing content for a URL associated with the        link.    -   65. The method of embodiment 64, further comprising receiving        data indicating a physical movement of the user, wherein the        physical movement of the user corresponds to a physical movement        of the preview.    -   66. The method of embodiment 53, wherein the interactable object        is both opened and placed with the user interaction.    -   67. The method of embodiment 53, wherein an orientation for the        interactable object is determined by:        -   determining a surface normal of the location of the            interactable object at the end of the user interaction;        -   determining the orientation of the data associated with the            interactable object; and        -   aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location with            the orientation of the data associated with the interactable            object.    -   68. The method of embodiment 53, wherein the interactable object        comprises a wall hanging.    -   69. A method, comprising:        -   receiving data indicating the selection of an interactable            object contained within a first prism at the start of a user            interaction, and        -   creating a second prism at a location of the interactable            object at an end of the user interaction to contain the data            associated with the interactable object when data            representing a physical movement of the user corresponding            to the user interaction between the start and the end of the            user interaction indicates the interactable object is            outside of the first prism at the end of the user            interaction.    -   70. The method of embodiment 69, further comprising a user input        device providing the data indicating the selection of the        interactable object and the data indicating representing a        physical movement of the user corresponding to the user        interaction between the start and the end of the user.    -   71. The method of embodiment 70, wherein the user input device        is a haptics controller.    -   72. The method of embodiment 71, wherein the haptics controller        corresponds to a totem device having at least six degrees of        freedom.    -   73. The method of embodiment 71, wherein a physical movement of        the user is translated into event objects at a processing system        associated with the haptics controller, where the event objects        correlate to data for movement or positioning of the haptics        controller.    -   74. The method of embodiment 71, wherein the location of the        interactable object at the end of the user interaction is        determined by identifying a location at which a trigger is        released for the haptics controller after the selection of the        interactable object.    -   75. The method of embodiment 70, wherein the user input device        is a camera to detect a user gesture.    -   76. The method of embodiment 75, wherein the data indicating the        selection of the interactable object corresponds to a selection        gesture.    -   77. The method of embodiment 75, wherein the data indicating the        end of the user interaction with the interactable object        corresponds to a release gesture.    -   78. The method of embodiment 69, wherein the data indicating the        selection of the interactable object corresponds to at least a        portion of the user's body interacting with a link.    -   79. The method of embodiment 78, wherein a preview is generated        of the link by accessing content for a URL associated with the        link.    -   80. The method of embodiment 79, wherein the physical movement        of the user corresponds to a physical movement of the preview.    -   81. The method of embodiment 69, wherein the interactable object        is both opened and placed with the user interaction.    -   82. The method of embodiment 69, wherein an orientation for the        interactable object is determined by:        -   determining a surface normal of the location of the            interactable object at the end of the user interaction;        -   determining the orientation of the data associated with the            interactable object; and        -   aligning the surface normal of the coordinate location with            the orientation of the data associated with the interactable            object.    -   83. The method of embodiment 69, wherein the interactable object        comprises a wall hanging.    -   84. A system, comprising:        -   a mixed reality display device that is configured to display            three dimensional content;        -   a user input device configured to detect physical movement            of a user;        -   a processor that receives and processes data from the user            input device;        -   a memory for holding programmable code executable by the            processor, wherein the programmable code includes            instructions for receiving data indicating a selection of an            interactable object contained within a first prism at the            start of a user interaction, receiving data indicating an            end of the user interaction with the interactable object,            receiving data indicating a physical movement of the user            corresponding to removing the interactable object from the            first prism between the start and the end of the user            interaction, and creating a second prism to contain the data            associated with the interactable object at the end of the            user interaction with the interactable object.    -   85. A system, comprising:        -   a mixed reality display device that is configured to display            three dimensional content;        -   a user input device configured to detect physical movement            of a user;        -   a processor that receives and processes data from the user            input device;        -   a memory for holding programmable code executable by the            processor, wherein the programmable code includes            instructions for receiving data indicating a selection of an            interactable object at the start of a user interaction,            receiving data indicating an end of the user interaction            with the interactable object, determining a location of the            interactable object at the end of the user interaction, and            creating a new prism for the data associated with the            interactable object at the end of the user interaction when            the location of the interactable object at the end of the            user interaction is outside of an initial prism of the            interactable object    -   86. A system, comprising:        -   a mixed reality display device that is configured to display            three dimensional content;        -   a user input device configured to detect physical movement            of a user;        -   a processor that receives and processes data from the user            input device;        -   a memory for holding programmable code executable by the            processor, wherein the programmable code includes            instructions for receiving data indicating the selection of            an interactable object contained within a first prism at the            start of a user interaction, and creating a second prism at            a location of the interactable object at an end of the user            interaction to contain the data associated with the            interactable object when data representing a physical            movement of the user corresponding to the user interaction            between the start and the end of the user interaction            indicates the interactable object is outside of the first            prism at the end of the user interaction.

System Architecture Overview

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an illustrative computing system 1400suitable for implementing an embodiment of the present disclosure. Thecomputing system 1400 includes a bus 1406 or other communicationmechanism for communicating information, which interconnects subsystemsand devices, such as a processor 1407, system memory 1408 (e.g., RAM), astatic storage device 1409 (e.g., ROM), a disk drive 1410 (e.g.,magnetic or optical), a communications interface 1414 (e.g., modem orEthernet card), a display 1411 (e.g., CRT or LCD), an input device 1412(e.g., keyboard and mouse).

According to one embodiment of the invention, the computing system 1400performs specific operations by the processor 1407 executing one or moresequences of one or more instructions contained in the system memory1408. Such instructions may be read into the system memory 1408 fromanother computer readable/usable medium, such as the static storagedevice 1409 or the disk drive 1410. In alternative embodiments,hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination withsoftware instructions to implement the disclosure. Thus, embodiments ofthe disclosure are not limited to any specific combination of hardwarecircuitry and/or software. In one embodiment, the term “logic” shallmean any combination of software or hardware that is used to implementall or part of the disclosure.

The term “computer readable medium” or “computer usable medium” as usedherein refers to any medium that participates in providing instructionsto the processor 1407 for execution. Such a medium may take many forms,including but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media.Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks,such as the disk drive 1410. Volatile media includes dynamic memory,such as the system memory 1408.

Common forms of computer readable media include, for example, floppydisk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magneticmedium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, anyother physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM,FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other mediumfrom which a computer can read.

In an embodiment of the disclosure, execution of the sequences ofinstructions to practice the disclosure is performed by a singlecomputing system 1400. According to other embodiments of the disclosure,two or more computing systems 1400 coupled by a communications link 1415(e.g., LAN, PTSN, or wireless network) may perform the sequence ofinstructions required to practice the disclosure in coordination withone another.

The computing system 1400 may transmit and receive messages, data, andinstructions, including program (i.e., application code) through thecommunications link 1415 and the communications interface 1414. Receivedprogram code may be executed by the processor 1407 as it is received,and/or stored in the disk drive 1410, or other non-volatile storage forlater execution. The computing system 1400 may communicate through adata interface 1433 to a database 1432 on an external storage device1431.

In the foregoing specification, the disclosure has been described withreference to specific embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evidentthat various modifications and changes may be made thereto withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the disclosure. Forexample, the above-described process flows are described with referenceto a particular ordering of process actions. However, the ordering ofmany of the described process actions may be changed without affectingthe scope or operation of the disclosure. The specification and drawingsare, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather thanrestrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising displaying an interactableobject as virtual content at a first location within a spatiallyorganized three-dimensional environment; detecting interaction of theuser with the interactable object; and opening the interactable objectto access pre-existing data associated with the interactable object,and, in response to the interaction with the interactable object by theuser, displaying the accessed data at a second location different fromthe first location within the spatially organized three-dimensionalenvironment, while maintaining the interactable object at the firstlocation within the spatially organized three-dimensional environment.2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the accessed data comprisesdisplaying a preview window of containing the accessed data.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein displaying the preview window comprisesdisplaying a movement of the preview window from the first location tothe second location within the spatially organized three-dimensionalenvironment.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the preview windowcontains a thumbnail-based rendering of the accessed data.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein the interactable object is opened and the dataassociated with the interactable object is accessed and displayed inresponse to a single interaction with the interactable object by theuser.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactable object isdisplayed on a surface in the spatially organized three-dimensionalenvironment.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the surface is one of aphysical surface and a virtual surface.
 8. The method of claim 1,further comprising moving the interactable object from the firstlocation to the second location in response to the interaction with theintractable object by the user.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein theuser interaction comprises a physical movement of the user, and movinginteractable object from the first location to the second locationcomprises dragging the interactable object from the first location tothe second location in correspondence with the physical movement of theuser.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactable object is aUniform Resource Locator (URL) link, and the data associated with theinteractable object is content of a web site identified by the URL link.11. The method of claim 10, wherein the URL link is displayed at thefirst location within a web browser, and wherein the second location isoutside of the web browser.
 12. The method of claim 10, furthercomprising generating a browser window at the second location within thespatially organized three-dimensional environment, the browser windowdisplaying the content of the web site.
 13. A system, comprising: amixed reality display device; configured for displaying an interactableobject as virtual content at a first location within a spatiallyorganized three-dimensional environment to a user; a user interfaceconfigured for detecting interaction of the user with the interactableobject; a processor configured for opening the interactable object toaccess pre-existing data associated with the interactable object, and,in response to the interaction with the interactable object by the user,instructing the mixed reality display device to display the accesseddata at a second location different from the first location within thespatially organized three-dimensional environment, while maintaining theinteractable object at the first location within the spatially organizedthree-dimensional environment.
 14. The system of claim 13, whereindisplaying the accessed data comprises displaying a preview windowcontaining the accessed data.
 15. The system of claim 14, whereindisplaying the preview window comprises displaying a movement of thepreview window from the first location to the second location within thespatially organized three-dimensional environment.
 16. The system ofclaim 13, wherein the interactable object is opened and the dataassociated with the interactable object is accessed and displayed inresponse to a single interaction with the interactable object by theuser.
 17. A computer program product embodied on a computer readablemedium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence ofinstructions which, when executed by a processor causes the processor toexecute a method comprising: displaying an interactable object asvirtual content at a first location within a spatially organizedthree-dimensional environment; detecting interaction of the user withthe interactable object; and opening the selected interactable object toaccess pre-existing data associated with the interactable object, and,in response to the interaction with the interactable object by the user,displaying the accessed data at a second location different from thefirst location within the spatially organized three-dimensionalenvironment, while maintaining the interactable object at the firstlocation within the spatially organized three-dimensional environment.18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein displaying theaccessed data comprises displaying a preview window containing theaccessed data.
 19. The computer program product of claim 18, whereindisplaying the preview window comprises displaying a movement of thepreview window from the first location to the second location within thespatially organized three-dimensional environment.
 20. The computerprogram product of claim 17, wherein the interactable object is openedand the data associated with the interactable object is accessed anddisplayed in response to a single interaction with the interactableobject by the user.